Digimon: Endless Struggle
by M306117
Summary: When nightmares from the Dark Ocean strike the DigiDestined find themselves unprepared for the battles that follow, or the revelations of dark truths about one of their own.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

It started with a dream.

She was standing alone in a city that Hikari recognised as her home of Odaiba, except the streets were filled with craters and rubble and half of the buildings had collapsed, and around her were the carbonised remains of her neighbours. Their skeletons were forever locked in their final positions, cowering away from whatever had killed them or embracing a loved one as the end came. Smoke still drifted from a few, a foul stench that burnt Hikari's nose as she walked past them, her feet following an unseen path through the devastation.

It was silent as she walked barring the crunch of rubble and bone beneath her feet, lacking even a gentle breeze to sweep away the smoke and fog filling the streets, furthering the sense of loneliness Hikari felt as she moved towards her destination deeper into the destruction. She didn't know where she was going, only that she needed to be there.

Her destination was somewhere ahead of her, she knew that much at least, and with every step closer her ears began to pick up on some subtle sounds that her brain quickly recognised as the dull whump of a distant explosion and the sharp clanging of metal on stone, indicative of a great battle being fought between two powerful combatants. Instinctively, Hikari knew she had to witness the battle and, more than that, her fate was directly tied to the outcome of the fight. Yet her feet never moved with any greater sense of urgency, following their chosen route through Odaiba's ruins and passing by the skeletal remains of the city's residents.

Off in the distance she could see the Rainbow Bridge, once an intact span of colour but now a broken mess hanging down into Tokyo Bay with smoke drifting from numerous points, partially hiding the ruined masterpiece of civil engineering in a thick haze. She looked at it for a little while then turned back to where the sounds of battle were coming from, louder than ever, the ground beneath her feet shaking gently and the wayward horizon lighting up slightly with every explosion.

It seemed like an eternity until she finally came across the source of the noises, Hikari taking note of the two fighters with neither fear nor surprise, feeling as though she had known who they were already. One was a humanoid not much bigger than her, clad in gunmetal grey armour and armed with cannons of some kind on its forearms and shoulders, plus powerful looking thrusters on its back, and Hikari was overcome with a maddeningly frustrating sense of familiarity regarding the figure. The way they stood, and moved, seemed so recognisable to her she was certain the humanoid was somebody she knew very well.

There were no such feelings of deep connection with the other figure standing across from the grey humanoid.

It stood taller than what few buildings still remained, a monstrous creature made up of innumerable tentacles that writhed over one another and extruded a powerful stench of rotten flesh and saltwater, a gaping maw of yellowed teeth and slobber set beneath twin eyes of crimson red that stared at the humanoid with such hatred and contempt and sadistic glee that Hikari was surprised energy didn't burst forth from them to strike the other fighter where he stood. Maybe they had and she had missed it during her slow journey here.

The fight seemed to have just about run its course, neither figure making much effort to launch another attack at their foe, but their reasons for it seemed to differ. The humanoid looked spent, its armour cracked and dented in places as it struggled to remain upright, swaying to and fro with exhaustion and remaining standing from sheer willpower alone. The tentacled beast, on the other hand, showed no signs of great pain or fatigue and looked to be revelling in the fact its opponent was nearly done, showing an almost animalistic pleasure at being able to toy with its prey.

Hikari watched as the humanoid rocketed forward on a pillar of blue flame, aiming straight for the creature's face, but a mass of tentacles came up lightning fast and swatted it out of the sky with such strength that the ground cracked from the force of the humanoid's impact, kicking up dust and chips of stone. Fear took root in her heart and she rushed towards the fallen fighter, knowing that if it was finished then so was she, and dropped to her knees beside the prone figure. It had put everything into that final attack, she knew, and there would be no more. Even so, the figure trembled and strained as it tried to move, sparks erupting from numerous rends in the armour.

Then a tentacle slammed into it without warning, grinding it into the ground and up into the air, whilst Hikari found herself blown backwards from the power of the blow and sat, dumbly, in the dirt and dust as the tentacle slammed the humanoid into building after building before throwing it back down to the ground right beside her. Stone chips tore at her skin and she shied away on reflex, recovering her wits enough to move back to the figure's side where it lay, immobile, belching acrid black smoke from the myriad of cracks in the armour. The humanoid had nothing more to give.

She placed her hands on the humanoid's arm, willing and urging it to get back up, when she looked up at the thing's face-

-and saw Daisuke looking back at her.

The suit's helmet had broken away at some point, leaving a jagged edge of metal and glass, and revealed the pilot beneath it who had changed so much since the last time Hikari had seen him. Gone was the tan he had acquired from playing football at every opportunity, replaced by a pale and waxen complexion that wouldn't have looked out of place on a corpse, his face a gaunt affair with sunken sockets surrounded by dark circles and containing almost lifeless eyes. The warmth and spirit Hikari had come to know so well was gone, replaced by despair and defeat.

And hate. For her.

'This is all your fault,' Daisuke rasped at her. 'This happened all because of you.'

Hikari recoiled in shock at his words, and his hateful expression, and sputtered out a confused, 'I'm sorry,' without really knowing what it was she was supposed to be sorry for. Daisuke might have been ready to respond but another tentacle shot past Hikari and pierced his chest, punching straight through the armour and out the other side. He didn't even scream in pain or shock at the mortal wound, coughing up a black liquid instead as the tentacle lifted him up off the ground. Some of it fell on Hikari as she stood below her friend and she caught a strong scent of saltwater.

'Your fault,' Daisuke managed to cough, bringing up more black seawater that dripped onto Hikari, her feet rooted to the spot. 'You-'

The tentacle whipped him away, a spurt of black liquid coming from his chest wound, and Daisuke disappeared into a nearby building that collapsed on top of him, burying the DigiDestined beneath tons of rubble as another tentacle wrapped itself around Hikari before she could react, ensnaring her perfectly and she found herself flying through the air to come face to face with the owner, the monster that had just killed her friend.

It smiled at her with its hideous maw, more a grimace, and revealed row upon row of yellowed fangs covered in slime and spittle that dripped onto the ground below. A laugh that sounded more like an earthquake escaped from its mouth and assailed Hikari with the stench of rotten flesh once again, not that the tentacle holding her hostage was much better, and she forced herself to look into the creature's eyes as they stared hungrily at her.

'My queen,' the beast rumbled. 'You are _mine_.'

Hikari screamed as the tentacle threw her forwards into the monster's mouth, her world becoming nothing more than darkness and coldness and brackish water that wormed its way into her throat and down into her lungs, choking her, in such a way that Hikari thought she was drowning.

That was when she awoke from her dream, panting and sweating with the taste of seawater fresh on her lips. She shivered and let out a plaintive cry of despair, drawing the bedcovers tight around her as if to warm herself up. Beside her Takeru slept on, blissfully unaware his girlfriend was dreaming about a ruined city they both loved, of one of their friends dying, of a gigantic monster.

Of the Dark Ocean.

She knew it could be nothing else. There wasn't anything that made her tremble in fear quite as much as that dark dimension did, and she knew that if she was dreaming about it something bad was happening. Worse, the dream had included Daisuke as well, and he had died in it. Was it an omen? Or a fear the dark denizens who lived there were preying upon? It had been quite some time since any of the DigiDestined had spoken to Daisuke in person, not since his abrupt relocation to California almost two years ago, and contact since then was sporadic at best. His texts and emails were short and laconic on the rare occasions he sent one, a far cry from the motormouth he was well known for.

Hikari couldn't even remember when it was she last heard his voice. A phone call six or seven months ago, maybe, that was dropped because of a bad connection before she could even speak to him. It worried her more than it should, even if she didn't openly admit it. The one person who was least likely to drop out of touch with anyone was Daisuke, regardless of where he was or what he was doing. He could have been on the Moon and he still would have found a way to constantly bombard her and the others with text messages or voicemails asking them about how they were doing.

But he hadn't.

The last message Hikari had gotten from Daisuke was from five months ago, in response to a text she had sent, telling her it was unlikely he'd be coming back to Japan to celebrate the winter holidays with her and the others. Moreover, he had done it with just two words.

_Daisuke, do you think you'll be coming back home this winter? We're planning on having a party to celebrate the anniversary of defeating MaloMyotismon and it wouldn't be complete without the person who pulled us through it. It'd be nice to see you again and learn about what you've been up to in California. Hikari_

His response simply read, _Doubt it._

There wasn't even an attempt on his behalf to open a video chat on the day so everyone could see him, if only for a short while. That had pissed people off, some more than others, but it just added to the worries Hikari had for their wayward member. It was so out of character for him to be so uncommunicative with everyone, it triggered alarm bells in her head, however faint. But to then see him die in a dream involving the Dark Ocean changed that. Now the bells were ringing out loud and proud for all to see.

Hikari reached into her nightstand and pulled out her phone, flipping it open to look at the menu screen. At the top was the local time, almost three o'clock in the morning, and some quick mental calculations told her it was eleven o'clock the previous day over in California, the middle of the day, which meant Daisuke was probably awake. She thumbed her way through the menus and brought up the text function, highlighting the chain she had with Daisuke, and began typing in a new message.

_Daisuke_, it read. _Are you okay? Is everything all right with you?_

She hit send and waited for a reply, wondering how long it might be before Daisuke responded. He could be in the middle of a lecture for all she knew, his phone on silent and buried deep in the bottom of his bag and unlikely to be looked at for another hour or more. She was pleasantly surprised to see her phone light up just a few minutes later with a new message.

_Everything's fine_, Daisuke's reply said. _Why are you texting me at such an early hour? Has something happened?_

_I had a dream, about the Dark Ocean. And you._

_Oh._

_You were fighting this big monster and lost. It killed you._

Hikari fought back some tears as she typed and sent that, recalling the shock of seeing Daisuke speared through the chest with a tentacle and getting thrown into a building. She drew her duvet tighter around her body as she waited for Daisuke to respond, almost ten minutes this time, quickly reading through the text he sent back.

_Is Takeru there with you?_

_Yes_, Hikari texted, looking down at her partner as he kept on sleeping beside her, naked but for the duvet she was slowly stealing away from him.

_Then don't worry about it. Stick with him and Gatomon. They pulled you back from the Dark Ocean the last time._

_I'm worried about you._

_Don't be._

_I can't help it. I dreamt that you died._

_And I feel like you're slowly drifting away from us all_, she almost added.

She paused then sent another text that read, _Can we talk?_

_Aren't we already?_

_Over the phone, Daisuke. I need to hear your voice._

_I'm a little busy._

_It's important. The Dark Ocean might be involved. I need to hear you._

Another long wait ensued, nearing fifteen minutes this time, and Hikari envisioned Daisuke making whatever excuses he needed to make to his teachers and faculty members about leaving class to make his phone call and getting somewhere isolated, away from prying ears and the gossipy cliques that apparently infested American colleges, according to their television programmes. Hikari's thumb was poised over the green call button and pressed it the instant her phone began trilling with an incoming call, cupping it to her ear just as quickly.

There was a click and a faint hiss of static, and then a voice she hadn't heard for almost six months filled her hearing.

'_Hikari?_' Daisuke said.

'Hi,' she said back. 'It's been a while since I've heard your voice.'

'_Yeah_,' Daisuke said. '_Things… kept popping up. Otherwise I might have called more._'

'Better late than never,' Hikari said. Next to her, Takeru began stirring at the new noise filling the room, belatedly rolling over to look up at her with half-lidded eyes filled with sleep. He mumbled something out that was probably a question about who she was calling, so Hikari mouth Daisuke's name. Despite his addled state, Takeru managed to look shocked upon learning who was on the other end of the call. He opened his mouth to ask more questions but Hikari silenced him with a later gesture.

'_So I died in your dream?_' Daisuke asked after a brief pause.

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'You'd been fighting this monster and it beat you, throwing you to the ground, and a tentacle forced its way through your chest. Then you coughed up black saltwater, like it was your blood.'

Takeru's brows shot up in alarm at that, quickly putting things together and reaching the same conclusion Hikari had, and he sat up without hesitation to wrap an arm around her shoulders to both comfort and protect her. She leant into his embrace and carried on speaking.

'Then it threw you into a building and captured me, telling me I was its queen and that I belonged to it, and then it swallowed me whole.'

The scent and taste of saltwater came back again, making her shiver, and Hikari was thankful Takeru had finally woken up. Just having him close by helped put her at ease, his arm a welcome security blanker if there ever was one. She wondered what was going through Daisuke's head thousands of miles away, and if he felt the need to have someone wrap themselves around him for peace of mind.

'_I see_,' he said. '_Was it just us?'_

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'Though you were wearing some kind of armour.'

'_I see_,' Daisuke said again. '_Is Takeru there with you? Right now?'_

'He is,' Hikari said, going no further than that. She doubted Daisuke wanted to know what the two of them had been up to before now, not that he couldn't figure it out for himself.

'_Then you'll be all right, Hikari_,' Daisuke said. '_He got you through the last time the Dark Ocean came for you. If the same thing is happening now, he'll get you through it like before.'_

'I know,' Hikari said, offering her boyfriend a faint smile which he returned.

'_So don't worry about me_,' Daisuke said. _'You've got everything you need right there.'_

'I know,' Hikari said.

'But,' she added. 'I'd feel better if I saw you. The sooner the better, actually. Maybe you could come over this weekend?'

There was a long pause from Daisuke's end, long enough that Hikari wondered if the call had gotten dropped without her knowing, but when she heard a soft sigh coming in over the phone she knew Daisuke had just spent the time mulling over the actual logistics of getting back to Japan on short notice.

'_That's a lot to organise on such a short notice_,' he finally said. '_And it won't be cheap either. I don't even know if I can get the time off work, either.'_

'Say it's an emergency,' Hikari said which, technically, it might be. Anything involving the Dark Ocean was never good. 'Please. I just… I really need to see you in person, to know you're really okay. And we miss you. All of us.'

'_Yeah_,' Daisuke said with a resigned tone. He sighed. _'Look, I'll try and make it back to Odaiba but I can't promise anything. Not right now. Maybe if you gave me a month I could work out something more definite-'_

'This weekend, Daisuke,' Hikari said. 'Not a month from now, not six weeks, not next year. This weekend.'

Another resigned sigh. '_Fine.'_

'Great,' Hikari said, allowing herself a smile. 'See you soon.'

'_Yeah_,' Daisuke said before disconnecting the call.

'You really miss him that much, huh?' Takeru said as Hikari put her phone away. 'Should I be feeling jealous?'

'No,' Hikari said, returning Takeru's embrace. 'I just miss him, is all. We've barely heard from him for two years.'

'You're worried about him,' Takeru said. 'Aren't you?'

Hikari didn't respond at first, burying her head in the crook of Takeru's neck to breathe in his scent and wash away the lingering smell of saltwater that still filled her nostrils. The truth was she was even more worried about Daisuke than she had been. Listening to his voice, she hadn't heard any of the passion or energy it normally possessed, just a deep-seated fatigue more at home in a soldier returning from battle. Something was desperately wrong with Daisuke and she needed to know what it was, force it out of him if needs be by any means necessary.

'I am,' she finally said.

'Me too,' Takeru admitted as he pulled her close. 'Me too.'

They stayed locked together like that, each ruminating on their own fears about what might have befallen their friend, for the better part of an hour until at last they broke apart and slid back beneath the covers, Hikari launching into her dream as best she could whilst Takeru listened in with rapt attention. When morning came they called up Taichi and the others to let them know of the recent developments, the elder Yagami sibling rushing straight over to check on his little sister at the first mention of the Dark Ocean. Everyone else agreed to clear their schedules for the upcoming weekend, ready for the impromptu reunion of the entire DigiDestined after so long. Everyone had something they wanted to say to Daisuke, friendly or otherwise, but they all had their worries about him and it would be good to catch up after all this time.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The weekend couldn't come quickly enough.

Time seemed to pass by in agonising slowness, dragging on from dawn until dusk as everyone made their own personal arrangements for the big day, be they arranging for time off work or organising transport back down to Odaiba, though the nights, for Hikari at least, were the worst. Her nightmares about Daisuke fighting and losing to that giant monster kept coming back, each as vivid as the one before, and she awoke in a cold sweat every time, only now there was no Takeru lying beside her to offer a calming embrace or soothing word. She had Gatomon and the little cat Digimon was always quick to curl up into Hikari's arms as she tried to banish the terrible afterimages away.

By the time Saturday came around, the day before the reunion, everything was as ready as it could be. They'd have the meet up in the Yagami residence, the only apartment big enough to hold the twelve DigiDestined and their Digimon in relative comfort, and discuss both the dreams Hikari was having, what they might possibly mean, and just have a chance to catch up with Daisuke after so long. It would be a quick reunion, though. He would only be in Japan for a grand total of five hours, two of which would be spent travelling to and from the airport. It was the best he could do, apparently.

Hikari wondered if that really was true, remembering the exhausted tone his voice carried, and idly thought about what changes might be waiting for them when Daisuke turned up tomorrow. The last time she had seen him was just after they'd resolved the infected Digimon situation two years ago at a party celebrating both it, and his and the others successful release from their imprisonment. He had been quiet and reserved then, a holdover he claimed from being held captive for so long, but otherwise fine even when she and Takeru approached him with the news they were going out.

There was the briefest flash of dismay in his eyes, Hikari recalled, at learning that but he quickly turned around and congratulated them both on finally giving into fate, as he'd put it, a smile on his face. Then just a few short weeks later he was gone, moving to California to attend a culinary college that specialised in helping students open their own food truck franchise afterwards, without so much as a warning beforehand that he was leaving. In fact, the DigiDestined only learned about the move _after_ it had already happened via email, Daisuke apologising profusely for the suddenness of it all and the fact he couldn't have told them all in person.

The chance had come up so quickly and with such a short window of opportunity to apply that he hadn't even had time to pack, heading off with Veemon to America with nothing but the clothes on his back, the email had read. Even so the timing struck Hikari as suspicious and her first thought, after getting over the fact she had lost her friend yet again in so short a time, was that Daisuke was just running away from the fact she and Takeru were together, and said as much in an email to him.

His reply had vehemently denied it, saying that the college offered English courses for foreign students that barely spoke the language but they had to start two whole months before everyone else to get a head start on mastering the difficult language, and that the courses continued throughout the year. He even attached a picture of the program that listed all the reading materials he needed to acquire and work through, a daunting amount if Hikari had ever seen one.

She relented and accepted the excuse, though some small voice of doubt persisted in the back of her mind over whether this was the real reason Daisuke had found a college in another country entirely rather than one in Japan, where he'd at least be able to meet up with everyone during the breaks and on weekends. His lack of communication with everyone hadn't helped much and Hikari tried to imagine what kind of things Daisuke might be getting up to over in California, assuming he really had run away from the fact she and Takeru were together, that might cause him to sound as exhausted as he had. Nothing plausible sprang to mind so she let it drop, letting her mind drift to another source of constant worry she had other than him.

'_In other news, reports continue to come in regarding yet another monster sighting within Japan, this time in Yokosuka_,' a newscaster intoned from behind her desk on the television. '_The reports state that the monster, similar in appearance to those that have already attacked Japan in the past and across the globe in recent years, appeared without warning in downtown Yokosuka late last night and began its attack, causing considerable destruction, before vanishing without a trace as JSDF personnel arrived to establish a perimeter._

'_Officials within the JSDF have yet to release any statement regarding this event, or any of the others that have occurred within Japan over the past few months, but are urging people to get to safety should such another incident occur. As with the other attacks, no clear footage was obtained beyond grainy images captured via mobile phones and traffic cameras...'_

The lady carried on with her report, repeating the same facts Hikari had heard three times already. Nothing new had been added and the same stock footage of a blurry figure, distant and indistinct, launching itself around an urban environment whilst blasting away at anything and everything it saw fit to destroy. This is what her other worry was beside Daisuke, perhaps an even bigger one because they had known about for a little under two years, yet been unable to do anything about it.

It started just a few months after the defeat of Ordinemon and the thwarting of King Drasil's plans with reports, rumours really, of some creature or monster laying waste to cities and towns on the West Coast of America with nothing but blurry or distant photos acting as 'proof', before developing into an ongoing story once shaky helmet footage from an American soldier was leaked online, showing them engaging in a battle with something that looked an awful lot like a Greymon as it blasted a residential neighbourhood in Los Angeles to burning embers, and this was only just the start.

More and more reports began pouring in of other Digimon appearing in cities across America, first simply on the West Coast before gradually moving east, occasionally straying into Canada and Mexico, until they leapt across the Atlantic Ocean and resumed their rampage in Ireland and then England, and from there the rest of Europe before swinging south, through Africa, and then back across the Atlantic to South America which was torn up bottom to top. Next was Russia, the Middle East, India and China, and now finally Japan almost two years since the first reported attack.

Like with every other major incident that involved rouge Digimon attacking human population centres, the DigiDestined sprang into action to try and resolve this growing crisis before anybody was seriously hurt, except that they lacked the proper means of crossing the Pacific Ocean to investigate the scene of the attack. Air travel was prohibitively expensive and without Imperialdramon to ferry them across the Pacific, the best everyone could do was communicate with their American counterparts and Daisuke, his college being less than a hundred miles from the attack, to learn all they could about it and the hours and minutes leading up to it.

To their dismay nothing concrete or plausible was unearthed, even when subsequent attacks occurred to provide more information. It was as though the Digimon simply appeared in the human world without use of a portal or a rend between the two planes of existence. Koushiro had tried to search for any anomalous pieces of data within the Digital World's code, spending week after week on it, finding nothing but a lack of sleep and deep-seated frustration. Gennai provided no useful information on the matter either, seemingly as nonplussed as the rest. In fact he was quick to suggest this was merely a side effect or glitch that came about from a near total reboot of the Digital World, that it was checking and rechecking every portal that connected it with their world and stray Digimon were breaking free as it did.

Their belief this was the case lasted for all of a month when it became apparent the Digimon coming through were increasing, not decreasing, and their destruction was becoming more and more total. People had even started to die from the attacks, either directly or afterwards from wounds they'd suffered. It was readily apparent that the Digital World was not glitching or still reeling from a side effect, but someone or something was releasing the Digimon here, and doing it without leaving any discernible trace of how they were doing it. No matter the test Koushiro and the others came up with, the results were always negative at best, contradictory at worst and examinations of where and when the attacks showed no readily apparent pattern they could figure out.

Eventually the Japanese DigiDestined had to admit some small form of defeat, unable to either predict where the next would be or figure out how they were being carried out, and resigned themselves to monitoring it whilst hoping the other DigiDestined across the globe could stumble across some vital clue that would tip the balance in their favour, preferably before the attacks began in Japan.

Alas, two months ago, the first one was reported far to the north in Kitami, and then Rumoi, and then it bounced across the northern prefectures before starting its agonising slow sweep southwards to Tokyo and the surrounding area. The attack in Yokosuka was the closest attack by far to where most of the DigiDestined lived, but even then it was over forty miles away by road. Nobody they knew had a car big enough to hold even a quarter of them and their partners, nor one fast enough to reach the site of the attack before it was over.

At least now they could see for themselves the place where the attacks occurred and glean what they could from the remains of battle, and maybe speak with eyewitnesses about any strange phenomena that might have happened in the lead up to the battle. Depressingly, their inquests produced nothing useful either. Nobody affected recalled anything out of the ordinary before the attacks took place, getting taken completely by surprise by the rampaging Digimon.

Not knowing anything about the attacks and not being able to do anything about them was more than just a little frustrating.

'Why are watching that?' Taichi asked as he walked up, a mug of tea in his hand which he placed next to Hikari. 'You know they won't tell us anything we don't already know.'

'It might,' she said, staring listlessly at the screen. Her nightmares had stolen much of the sleep she should have gotten over the past few days. 'Sometimes the biggest breaks come about because of the small things. Remember how we figured out that Ken was the Digimon Emperor?'

'Yeah, vaguely,' Taichi said, scratching the back of his head. 'There was a graze on his shin, wasn't there? Daisuke had tackled Ken earlier at a football match or something.'

Hikari nodded. 'And that was how we figured out Ken was behind everything. See? The small things can sometimes be useful.'

'I guess,' Taichi said as he sat at the other end of the sofa, his gaze drawn to the television screen as well. 'Two years on and we still know next to nothing about why these attacks are happening. It sucks feeling this helpless.'

He leaned back and groaned, covering his face with his hands as Hikari stole a glance at her brother. She recalled feeling just as powerless once, many years ago when she found herself standing in the Dark Ocean by herself, without her Digivice or Gatomon, or any of her friends. She shivered at the memory, doubly so because that foul place was haunting her dreams again and she knew it meant nothing good. By the time Taichi was done having his mini meltdown she was back to normal, gazing at the television like some zombie from a cheesy horror flick like nothing had ever happened.

'Maybe Koushiro will make some great discovery,' Hikari offered in an attempt to lift Taichi's spirits. 'And then explain in great deal about how it slipped our attention for so long with words only he and Ken can understand.'

'Yeah, that sounds about right,' Taichi said as the news shifted to some fluff piece about a local bakery competition. 'Hey, is Ken excited to see Daisuke again? I know how close the two of them are.'

A smile slipped onto Hikari's lips. 'He's acting like a kid at Christmas. They've got about two years' worth of talking about sports to catch up on, and just as much missed time actually playing football as well.'

'I wonder if he picked up any new tricks while he was in America,' Taichi said, his head cocking to one side in thought.

'If he was playing what they call football, then you might not like that,' Hikari reminded him, though privately she couldn't help but laugh at the idea of Daisuke charging Taichi once the whistle blew and bashing him out of the way to carry the ball into the goal. From the grimace adorning her brother's face, he was having similar thoughts but without the same reaction.

Then her smile faded when she remembered that Daisuke wasn't going to be in Japan long enough to have any kind of match with Ken or Taichi. Just discussing the dreams she'd been having was going to take priority and probably take up most of the time he had to spend with them. Her thoughts drifted further to wondering how long it would be until Daisuke finished with his course and came home to Odaiba. He hadn't mentioned the length of the course or, if he had, she had forgotten it.

_How long is your course going to be? _Hikari texted him after fishing out her phone.

_Another year_, his reply said. _If I'm lucky. Two if I have to resit any of my exams. Academia was never my strong suit, was it? And I'm having to do it all in a language I'm still learning._

_I didn't realise cooking had that much written exams._

_The business side does._

Ah, yes, the college also taught its students everything they might need to know about actually creating some kind of business venture from their fast food truck they were learning to cook for, like getting the proper permits and how to advertise. Still, three years seemed like overkill for something as small and simple as a restaurant on wheels, and her earlier musings on him using it as an excuse to run away from her and Takeru started coming back.

_But three years?!_

_Capitalists take money making very seriously._

She had to laugh at that and snapped her phone shut after sending one last text saying she was looking forward to seeing him tomorrow as the weather forecast came on, predicting mild conditions for the next few days before drifting into a fierce rainstorm set to last two days.

'What'd Daisuke say?' Taichi asked. His gaze was almost as slack as hers was, fixated solely on the flickering screen as the weatherman gestured with his stick at the various symbols and numbers covering the screen behind him.

'How'd you know it was him?' Hikari asked back.

'Who else are you going to be texting at this time?' he said. 'Everyone else is pretty much sorted and they know the schedule.'

'Just that it might be another year before he's finished in America,' Hikari said. 'Maybe two if he flunks his exams.'

'Poor him,' Taichi said with a sigh. 'Having to face the threat of spending another two years in a land of sun, beaches and beautiful women. What a terrible fate to have.'

'Should I tell Meiko that you're feeling jealous?' Hikari teased, prodding her brother with a bare foot.

'Knock it off,' Taichi muttered, pushing the foot away in annoyance even as his cheeks turned a faint red. He and Meiko weren't officially going out yet, even after two years of constant meet ups during school breaks and holidays. Just friends, as he was wont to say, but everyone couldn't help but see the attraction between the two. It was just a matter of time before they actually admitted anything.

'Do you think Daisuke hooked up with anyone while he's been there?' he asked, trying to move the topic of conversation away from his love life.

Hikari could only shrug. 'He never mentioned anyone in his emails and texts.'

'Daisuke never mentioned a whole lot of things,' Taichi said quietly, referring to the bare bones communiques he occasionally sent.

'He would have mentioned a girlfriend,' Hikari said. 'If not to me, then to you or Ken. You know, as a brag.'

'Or to show that he was over you.'

For some reason that struck a chord deep within Hikari, even if Taichi meant it in jest, and she didn't really know why. Maybe it was because she felt he really had run away from her and Takeru's relationship, or just because she was worrying more than usual about him. Whatever the reason she fixed Taichi with a glower at his comment.

'Sorry,' he said with a nervous chuckle and an apologetic wave of his hand. 'Slip of the tongue?'

He gave a nervous laugh again even as Hikari let her scowl fade and returned her gaze to the news reports, now cycling back to the attacks in Yokosuka and the rest of the world once more but with a new anchor helming the desk, this one a man who delivered the report with a more serious tone as though trying to give the subliminal impression that his chosen company was a better source of reliable news than the others, even if they all got their information from the same place. Behind him, videos and stills of last night's attack flashed across the screen along with choice excerpts from what few statements had been given out by those in a position of authority, and from survivors.

There was nothing new added this time around and eventually Taichi got bored of watching the same few things over and over again, wrestling the remote control from his little sister so he could begin channel hopping until he found something that caught his interest for more than a few seconds. As far as Hikari could tell, it was just another anime about some disaffected loner hero fighting against an obviously evil organisation alongside a pretty girl who was slow in realising her feelings for him and slower still in acting on them, plus the numerous obligatory, and decidedly longwinded, soliloquys as the good guys dwelled on the meaning of everything or decried about the fact they just weren't strong enough (despite all evidence to the contrary) to defeat the villain.

She tuned it all out as best she could before giving up and relocating to her room where a sleeping Gatomon had laid claim to the bed, curled up in a ball as she slept. Hikari did her best to avoid disturbing the Digimon, knowing full well Gatomon had already heard her come in, and pulled out an old scrapbook she and the rest of the DigiDestined had put together over the years chronicling their adventures. Takeru was always threatening to use it as a basis for a novel he hoped to write somewhere down the line, once Digimon were common knowledge, but for now he was content with a blog and the occasional piece for the school newspaper.

One of the first pictures was a group shot of them all, dirty and sweaty after a hard day's work rebuilding the Digital World once they'd freed it from Ken's rule, smiles on their faces despite being exhausted and aching all over. Her eyes drifted to Daisuke almost instantly, not simply because he was front and centre in the image with Veemon at his side, but because he was such a ball of energy back then and the least likely to change by any measurable degree. A smile briefly flashed onto Hikari's lips but it soon passed as she stared at the old picture.

'How much have you changed?' she asked it, not knowing if she'd like to know the answer to that particular question. When she finally found out, she was quick to decide that ignorance really was bliss.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

When word had gotten around to the Japanese DigiDestined that they were going to be holding an impromptu reunion of all twelve members, imaginations began running wild as each of them speculated just how much Daisuke might have changed in the two years since they had seen him, given photos from him were just as rare as a long and flowing email. Some saw him as becoming even more toned and athletic from playing football with his fellow college students, either American or association football, or even bearing a noticeable paunch after subsisting on the rich food over in California, plus sampling his own product during cooking and experimenting, though they all agreed the idyllic Pacific weather was going to bestow upon him a heavy tan, regardless of his activities.

Yet when Daisuke finally knocked on the Yagami apartment door and entered, giving everyone their first look at him since his departure from Odaiba all those months ago, they saw that none of their predictions or assumptions were right outside of the suntan, though Mimi would later assert even that was nothing more than expertly applied makeup when things came to light. He was neither muscular nor chubby, even if he was a few inches taller, with bags under his eyes. In fact, just as Mimi had, a later opinion from Jou would classify both of these as evidence of borderline malnutrition and extreme sleep deprivation.

But these observations would only be voiced later, when things had taken a dramatic turn, and the DigiDestined focused more on greeting Daisuke as he stepped through the door. Hikari was the first to meet him, springing up for the door the moment the first knock could be heard before anyone else could react to the noise and hauling it open. Part of the reason why she was the first to move was because this reunion had been her idea and she felt some responsibility to welcome them all into her home, but mostly it was because she was eager to see Daisuke again. Her worries about him hadn't abated in the slightest since that first nightmare. If anything, they had only gotten worse.

She welcomed him back with a big hug before he could even cross the threshold proper, quickly releasing him and stepping to one side so Daisuke could enter the apartment. It was rare for her to meet him with such an overt display of affection like a hug, which lay more in the realm of Mimi and Miyako when they were feeling overly emotional, or just dramatic, and she felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment at it. If Daisuke felt awkward about the matter he didn't show it, hugging back, but even so a part of Hikari's mind couldn't help note that his was a more perfunctory embrace, maintaining contact just long enough to avoid seeming cold yet not enough to indicate how much he had missed them.

It was then that she felt how thin he was, how slight his frame had become, and this too was filed away for further reflection at a later time, along with her astonishment at how tired and bloodshot his eyes were, and the dark rings that circled them. Her thoughts flickered back to the phone call that had set this in motion, how exhausted Daisuke had sounded, then quickly returned back to the present.

'It's been a while,' she said, offering a small smile.

'Yeah,' Daisuke said. 'Two years or something, right? Doesn't feel like it.'

'Must be all the fun you're having at college,' Hikari said. 'The movies and television programs make them look like one massive party.'

'Don't believe everything you see on TV,' Daisuke said. 'Most of the time we're studying when we aren't in classes or lectures.'

'I bet you hate that part,' Hikari said.

'Yeah,' Daisuke said again, this time in almost wistful tone as his eyes momentarily lost their focus as his mind drifted to other thoughts. They snapped back to the present and onto the rest of the DigiDestined as they crowded around the two sofas in the apartment's living room.

They were only designed to hold a maximum of five or so between them, so trying to squeeze twelve people and their Digimon into such a space was no easy task. If they weren't perched on the arms then they were on the floor, using a stolen cushion as a seat or just enduring the hard surface as best they could, and there was a mad scramble to claim a comfortable spot once they'd all stood up to greet Daisuke as he wandered over to the sofas. Hikari hung back and watched them as they did, again noting that Daisuke was returning some of the embraces in a perfunctory manner, and that he tended to do so when it came to the older generation of DigiDestined rather than the team he had led, Takeru being a notable exception.

At the time Hikari dismissed the whole thing as being another holdover from when Daisuke and the others had gotten kidnapped by the Gennai imposter. Some psychological text she had read somewhere stated that people who go through a traumatic experience together develop strong bonds, so it would stand to reason that Daisuke might react more warmly to Ken, Miyako and Iori than the rest of them. And again, later reflection would reveal to Hikari that Daisuke had only ever locked eyes with her directly twice during the entire time he was there. The first was when she had let him in, and the second was when he left. The rest of the time he would only look in her general direction, never straight at her, like the spot adjacent to her shoulder or just focus on nothing as he spoke.

'You look good, man,' Ken said to Daisuke once they'd finished what Taichi and Yamato called a man hug. 'California's doing something right by you.'

'It's all the beautiful women over there,' Daisuke said with a grin. 'There's all the eye candy a guy could ask for, and more. There has to be something in the water over there that makes them all look like models.'

'Yeah, it's called a plastic surgeon,' Miyako said. 'Daisuke, there are no real women over in California. Just Barbie dolls.'

'Jealous?' he said back, grin widening ever so slightly.

'Hardly,' Miyako said, arms folded across her chest in a huff. 'You wouldn't know true beauty if it was standing right in front of you.'

'After hanging out with you for all these years, I know when it's not,' Daisuke said.

Miyako pursed her lips together at that jibe and grabbed hold of Ken's arm as she threw a glower at Daisuke, adding, 'It's a good thing Ken doesn't have the same poor vision as you. He appreciates beauty when he sees it.'

'Oh, no,' Daisuke said as his face fell, eyes on the arm Miyako had slipped around his best friend's waist. 'Ken, say it ain't so. You've fallen from our noble bachelor ranks for Miyako?!'

He pantomimed throwing up even as Miyako's face grew a funny shade of red and she took a few menacing steps towards him, only for Ken to pull her back and guide her to a seat on the sofa he had somehow saved, slotting himself into place beside her on the arm as he looked around the apartment.

'Where's Veemon?' he asked after doing a quick count and coming up short by one Digimon. Wormmon even perked his head up at the mention of his DNA partner, looking around expectantly for the blue ball of energy.

'Oh, I couldn't bring him,' Daisuke said. 'With how tight airport security is and how lively he's gotten, there's no way I could have smuggled him back to Japan without somebody finding out. Besides, the college football team has anointed him as their unofficial lucky mascot, and they've got a game in a few hours. They don't want to play without him.'

'You could have tried,' Hikari said. 'He's part of _our_ team as well.'

'I would if I could,' Daisuke said with a sharp tone that took them all by surprise, even if he was looking at a spot adjacent to Hikari. 'I want him to be here as much as you guys do, maybe more, but he's not, so drop it.'

He paused for a brief moment, hands clenched, then relaxed and moved to sit with his back against the wall beneath the window, through which a clear blue sky could be seen that was soon to be replaced by grey clouds and rain if the weather predictions were correct. Everyone stared at Daisuke as he did, taken aback by the raised voice he had used to speak with Hikari, and glanced amongst themselves for a fleeting second whilst he got as settled as he could.

'So Veemon's not coming?' Wormmon asked as he climbed the back of the sofa Ken was on and up his partner's back, giving the crook of his neck a small nuzzle.

'No, Wormmon,' Ken said. 'Maybe next time, I guess.'

The Digimon made an unhappy noise at that and crawled into Ken's lap as everyone looked at Hikari now, waiting for her to get around to the real reason behind this reunion. She hesitated to do so, though, the nightmares filling her with revulsion and fear even now, but Taichi and Takeru took hold of her hands and gave them reassuring squeezes that helped assure Hikari things were going to be all right. After all, the DigiDestined were back together again and this wasn't the first time they had gone through tough times. They could do this, she told herself.

So Hikari began.

She started by describing the ruined neighbourhood she was in, how half the buildings were blown to pieces when they weren't gutted by fires, and how the skeletons of the people of Odaiba surrounded her as she walked past them towards the fight between Daisuke and the monster. Her voice cracked slightly upon describing the battle, of how Daisuke had clearly lost and the monster was just toying with him at this point, right up until it speared him through the chest with a tentacle.

He barely reacted to that part, simply nodding his head ever so slightly upon learning of his demise by tentacle rather than passing off some darkly humorous comment about it being better that the tentacle killed him rather than doing something else to his body, as various hentai shows were oft to feature. In fact, he barely looked like he was awake and listening to Hikari as she recounted her tale. His eyes were closed and his head was leaning forward like he had fallen asleep, breathing soft and slow, but occasionally a question would come from his prone form that belied his slumbering appearance.

'You said something just before that thing killed you,' Hikari said after a pause to collect herself. 'After it had slammed you into the ground and I saw your face for the first time.'

'Ow, maybe?' Daisuke offered with a soft chuckle that nobody else added to. 'What did I say?'

'That it was all my fault,' Hikari said. 'That what was happening was all because of me.'

'Really?' Daisuke said. 'Anything else?'

'No,' Hikari said. 'But it wasn't just about what you said to me, Daisuke. It was how you looked at me as well.'

'Oh?' Daisuke said. 'And how did I look at you?'

Hikari stopped for a moment and brought up her memory of Daisuke lying there in that crater, wearing battered and broken armour that smoked and sparked, and the utter contempt and anger etched onto his face that he directed straight at her even as she fretted and worried about his condition.

'You looked like you hated me,' Hikari finally said. 'Like I was the most disgusting person you had ever laid eyes on or that I had done something to you, and now you wanted nothing more to do with me.'

'Now why would I look at you like that?'

At long last Daisuke opened his eyes, even if he was staring at the space in front of Hikari rather than at her, and a pang of terror roiled through Hikari when she peered into them because they looked exactly like the eyes Daisuke sported in her dream. Listless, exhausted, despairing and defeated, and without the energy that she associated with him. How much of the dream was her own doing, how much was the Dark Ocean's influence, and how much of it might be predictions for the future that were coming true?

Takeru, as if sensing her unease, squeezed her hand to reassure Hikari and she squeezed it back.

'I don't know,' Hikari said quietly.

Daisuke gave that same slight nod again and closed his eyes, going back to looking like he was asleep, and said, 'Is that when it killed me?'

'Yes,' Hikari said quietly. 'A tentacle, right through the chest, and then it threw you into a nearby building that collapsed on top of you.'

'And then captured you,' Daisuke said. 'And swallowed you whole.'

'Yes,' Hikari whispered.

He nodded but did little else, brow knitting ever so slightly as he thought over the scene Hikari had painted for him. Everyone was, mulling over the possible causes behind her dream and what meanings might be gleaned from it. She had wrestled with it for the past few days without much success beyond a fear of losing Daisuke somehow, but why had the Dark Ocean latched onto _that_ as the means of intruding into her life? And why show her walking through the ruins of Odaiba?

'This doesn't seem to make all that much sense,' Koushiro said, cupping his chin in one hand in deep thought. 'If the Dark Ocean wants to create some kind of connection with Hikari once again, why is it choosing to feature Daisuke rather than Takeru or Taichi? They would make for a more emotional impact.'

'Thanks for that,' Daisuke said.

'I'm just speaking objectively,' Koushiro said. 'The relationships they have with Hikari are stronger than yours, from a technical standpoint, so any feelings of anguish or fear would, in turn, be much stronger for the creatures from the Dark Ocean to prey upon.'

'So why me?' Daisuke said.

'Who knows?' Koushiro said before turning to Hikari. 'Unless there's anything you wish to add, Hikari, about why they would be using Daisuke rather than Takeru or Taichi.'

All eyes, but Daisuke's, swivelled to her and Hikari felt her own drift downwards from the attention she was getting, not that everyone had been ignoring her up until now as she spoke about the nightmares. Takeru gave her another squeeze of the hand though he probably wanted to know the most why she was thinking about somebody who had fought for her affection when they were younger.

She took a breath, then, 'I'm afraid we're losing you.'

She said this directly to Daisuke who opened his eyes fractionally as Hikari kept speaking.

'We've barely heard anything from over the past two years,' she said. 'Just sporadic emails and text messages that are always in response to things _we_ send. You never started a conversation yourself. It's always been us.'

Tears threatened to form in the corner of her eyes as but Hikari cuffed them away as everyone turned their attention to Daisuke, awaiting his response, but he seemed unmoved by her outburst or accusing tone.

'Daisuke, I need to know,' Hikari said. 'Did you move to California just to get away from me and Takeru?'

She expected him to take a long time to answer, or try to obfuscate his reason, but he came back with a simple no after only a moment's contemplation.

'I'd been looking at the college for a while,' he said. 'Since just before we were all abducted, actually, and it ticked all the boxes I was after so when a spot opened up, I jumped at the chance. It's just coincidence that I went not long after you and Takeru made your announcement.'

'But-' Hikari began to say.

'I'm over you,' Daisuke said, cutting in hard. 'I have been for a long while now, Hikari. Date whoever you want, I don't care. Just don't assume that I'd run away to another country because I was upset. You're not that special.'

His tone shifted ever so slightly at that last part, at least to Hikari it seemed to, edging towards disdain or anger more than the neutral tone Daisuke had adopted beforehand and the trill of fear from before swept through Hikari again, stronger this time.

Silence fell over the group again, unsure of where to go, but Koushiro had sense enough to work with the new data point Hikari had provided before things became any more awkward, pulling out a PDA to access some of the files he had compiled regarding dream interpretation and the functions of dreams, including the papers that contradicted each other.

'A sense of loss could explain the reason why you dreamt about Daisuke being killed,' he said. 'After all, dying is a pretty permanent way to lose a loved one and seeing it occur in such a traumatic way would reinforce that sense, plus several other negative feelings. As for there being ruins, I can only assume that may have to do with the attacks that have been occurring across the globe.

'We've certainly seen our fair share of destroyed buildings in our time, after all, and being unable to stop these attacks is likely a stress we all share.'

'And that tentacled monster?' Takeru asked. 'What does that have to do with anything?'

'The creature Hikari described could be attributed to any number of things,' Koushiro said. 'Mythology is filled with monsters and creatures of a destructive nature that were said to be tentacled beats, like the Kraken of Scandinavian lore which was said to terrorise sailors, to literary creations like Cthulhu who has the power to make men go mad simply by appearing on the surface of the ocean, to villains in cheesy monster flicks that saturate the medium.

'We've even encountered a few Digimon that have tentacles during our adventures, so who can really say if the monster is supposed to represent anything in particular or is just a scary image the brain conjured up.'

'But I tasted saltwater,' Hikari said. '_Black_ saltwater at that. How many places can you say has that?'

'That's probably the only solid piece of evidence we have to suggest the involvement of the Dark Ocean,' Koushiro said as he tucked his PDA away, hands clasped in his lap. 'But equally, we can't be certain that whoever or whatever resides there directly influenced your dream to such an extent. They could have just picked up on a pre-existing nightmare you were having over the idea of losing Daisuke, hoping to create a strong enough link to draw you back into their dimension.'

'So it might be nothing,' Hikari said, forcing a hopeful smile onto her face that probably looked more desperate than anything.

'It might,' Koushiro said. 'Though when it comes to the Dark Ocean, we can never really rule anything out. Like before, focus on what's troubling you and overcome it.'

Everybody turned back to Daisuke, who had still barely moved an inch from his position on the floor, who gave a dismissive wave and said, 'Don't worry about losing me, or me hating you.'

'But it feels like we've already lost you,' Hikari said. 'We've barely heard from you over the past two years, Daisuke.'

'Don't worry about it,' he said again. 'In another year, maybe two, I'll be back in Japan and it'll be like I never left. Just wait.'

'Will you at least try and get in contact a little more?' Ken said. 'I miss not having you chewing my ear off about everything.'

'Particularly women, if that thing on your arm is anything to go by,' Daisuke said with a grin. 'I'll try but my schedule is pretty full, even when I'm not in class or lectures. They have us in these work placements where we're supposed to get hands on learning in our chosen culinary speciality, and because I'm still learning English I have to attend these extra classes too.'

Miyako stuck her tongue out at Daisuke who just smiled back, and the whole atmosphere of the room underwent a sudden shift from tense and on edge as they discussed the nightmares that had been plaguing Hikari to a group of friends hanging out for the first time in a long while, trading barbs and snide comments when they weren't catching up on recent life events. At least, that was what it looked like it was heading towards if Daisuke's phone hadn't gone off.

He reached into his pocket even before the first trill could finish, flipping it open and holding it to his ear without even checking who was calling, and answered tersely once the connection was made.

'Yes?' he said. 'How soon? And how powerful is it looking to be? I understand. Yes, I'll be there in time. No, it shouldn't be a problem.'

Hikari could only wonder about what was being said on the other end of the call, though judging by the narrowing of Daisuke's eyes she imagined it wasn't anything good, so she asked, 'What's up?'

'That was the airport,' Daisuke said even as he got to his feet. 'There's a major storm rolling in that's going to be grounding most of the flights out of Tokyo for the next few days, so they're trying to get as many flights out before then, and that includes mine. If I'm not on the plane within the next hour I'm stuck in Japan until Wednesday at the earliest.'

'So stay,' Hikari said, finding herself suddenly anxious about the prospect of Daisuke heading out so soon after arriving. 'I'm sure your parents would love to see you for a few days.'

'They're out on holiday,' Daisuke said. 'Without me or Jun at home, they decided to see the world and I left my keys back in California.'

'You could stay with me,' Ken offered as Daisuke moved towards the door. 'My parents would love to have you over.'

But Daisuke shook his head. 'I'd love to, man, but there's a lot of studying I need to do and I left all my textbooks behind, and there's this big test coming up that I need to pass if I don't want to get held back a year.'

'I'm sure we can source them online,' Koushiro said. 'I just need their titles.'

'Don't bother,' Daisuke said. 'My books have all these extra notes in them and they're the things I need to be focusing on more than the books themselves.'

'Why didn't you bring them with you?' Takeru asked. 'It's a long flight from here to California.'

'Because I spent most of the flight asleep,' Daisuke said. 'When I said it wouldn't be easy for me to come over, I wasn't kidding. The amount of double and triple shifts I've worked so other people can cover me is unreal, and that only got me today off, and it cost me a few days' worth of sleep, too.'

'So stay,' Hikari said again. 'Your professors would understand if bad weather forced you to prolong your trip back home by a few days, wouldn't they? It's not like the storm grounding all the flights is your fault, is it?'

Daisuke stopped by the hallway, a shoe in one hand, and glanced back over his shoulder towards Hikari's general direction with a puzzled expression on his face, as though he couldn't quite comprehend why she was adamant he extend his visit to Japan rather than let him catch an earlier flight home to avoid the bad weather socking the various airliners in for half a week, and said as much.

'Because it's been so long since we've seen you,' she said. 'And now, half an hour after you came back, you're leaving again. We haven't even started discussing the attacks by Digimon that have sprung up across the planet.'

'Like I'd actually contribute anything worthwhile to that,' he said back, almost derisively, as he turned away from Hikari and started slipping his shoes on. 'Offering brilliant insights or coming up with ingenious strategies was never my thing, Hikari. I was always just the muscle of the group.'

'You never know,' Hikari offered as she moved closer.

'Two years in and none of you have any real idea about why they're happening,' Daisuke said. He stood and turned to look directly at Hikari, the second of two times he had actually done so. 'What makes you think that having me around would suddenly change that fact? Because it wouldn't. You can't even figure out where the Digimon come from.'

He seemed to throw that particular jibe at Koushiro who could only glance away in dejected admittance of the fact his every effort thus far had come up empty, but really it could have been aimed at everyone in the room. Nobody else had put forward a suitable hypothesis about where the rampaging Digimon were coming from and, as painful as it was to admit it, they were stating to just accept the fact they might never actually know.

Worse though was the bitter edge creeping into Daisuke's tone as he spoke to them all, even Ken, that was at odds with the more playful one he had used when trading barbs with Miyako just a few minutes ago. Hikari's fear her dreams were actually prophetic only grew stronger as a result, especially when spite flashed into Daisuke's eyes for the briefest of moments as he looked right at her.

'We just want to spend some time with you,' she tried in one final attempt to convince him to stay, even though she knew from the set of his shoulders that staying was the last thing on Daisuke's mind.

He didn't say anything for what felt like a long, long time, giving her a stone-faced glare as he did, before coming out with a scathing comment that cut right through Hikari and made her go cold inside.

'Like when I was kidnapped?'

The entire apartment became deathly silence at that with nobody daring to even breathe lest they break it, staring with mouths agape at Daisuke as he kept his glare fixed on Hikari who felt like withering beneath it until he span on his heel and marched towards the door, yanking it open and slamming it shut behind him as he left without even saying so much as a goodbye to the others or a promise to try and maintain a better level of communication with them. He was just gone, thirty-four minutes after arriving, having done nothing to allay any of the fears Hikari had over him. If anything, he had added even more.

She let out a soft breath and murmured a belated goodbye at the door then staggered backwards as the strength left her legs, Takeru rushing up from the sofa to catch and steady her, guiding Hikari back to her vacant seat and sitting her down before she could collapse. Around her, the others were reacting to Daisuke's comment to varying degrees of outrage or quiet contemplation, Miyako of course being one of the loudest proponents of calling Daisuke every name under the sun, plus a few that she seemed to be making up on the spot as her cheeks turned a very dark shade of red.

The discussion that followed was animated to say the least.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The attack came five hours after Daisuke left.

Technically, it was the third in a string of attacks besieging Japan that night but it was the only one that occurred within running distance of the Yagami apartment, and Hikari and Takeru wasted no time in sprinting towards the sounds of battle with their Digimon in tow, ready to finally see for themselves who or what might be behind the attacks after eluding them for almost two years. It actually came as something of a relief to at last hurl themselves into action after so long of doing nothing but watching, helpless, from the side. Now they had a chance to do what they were chosen to do.

Hikari fought to get enough air into her burning lungs as she and Takeru sprinted down the street, the only DigiDestined nearby that could respond to the attack in time after the others slowly drifted away from the reunion, which quickly devolved into a discussion about Daisuke that was equal parts talking about what might have caused his change in personality and appearance, and straight up complaining about him. They shouldn't have done talked about Daisuke like that, Hikari thought privately, not when they barely knew why he was acting like he had. She reasoned there was a simple explanation, and once it was resolved things would revert back to normal in due time.

Even so, her own thoughts about him had whirled about inside her head like a hurricane, especially when Jou offered his opinion that Daisuke was both malnourished and not getting enough sleep based on his physical appearance. Not eating and not sleeping were things Daisuke would never do, anyone who had seen the state of his room could attest to that, so something drastic had to have taken place to cause such a change in him.

She refused to let the thought die, or it refused to go away, even as the others began packing their things up and heading for home and she and Takeru decided to have an impromptu night in as a means of unwinding from the stress of the day. Her parents were out visiting friends and Taichi had arranged to meet up with Meiko for something he adamantly refused to call a date, leaving them alone in the apartment. It distracted her and Takeru began to grow increasingly irritated by her spacing out as he tried to hold a conversation with his girlfriend that was about anything other than Daisuke, and he practically whooped with joy when that first explosion tore through the quiet night.

'What. Do you reckon. It is?' he asked between breaths as they ran down the pavement, ducking past other people as they ran _away_ from the battle, some of them screaming at the two to do the same.

'I. Don't know,' Hikari panted back. 'Something big. Probably.'

Takeru nodded in agreement and they pressed on, drawing closer and closer to the sounds of battle where explosions, clangs, and rhythmic zapping could be heard as the two combatants gave it their all to defeat the other. They turned a corner and saw the fight at the other end of the street, less two figures battling it out than it was a dusty haze hanging in the air with lights strobing within it. Worse, burnt out cars and buses lined the road, some of them buried in the fronts of some shops and apartments and most of them containing the still smoking carcasses of their owners.

Hikari fought back the urge to throw up as the scent of charred flesh hit her nose and clutched Gatomon tighter, delicately picking her way through the wrecks and avoiding stepping on anything that had fallen out. This was definitely the most devastating attack on Japan so far with a body count already several dozen high, and the battle wasn't over yet.

'We're gonna make this guy pay,' Gatomon hissed as they ran by one of the ruined cars, a smouldering lump of warped metal filled with charred black skeletons, all but one of them on the small side. 'No matter what.'

Her partner nodded, too out of breath to properly speak, even as she felt her dread increase at seeing yet another facet of her dream come true. Skeletons ravaged by fire was something not easily forgotten. How soon might it be before Daisuke was killed by a gigantic tentacle creature? Or until she was captured by said creature and eaten?

She shook her head to dispel the thoughts but they persisted, clinging to life even as they arrived at the dusty veil and broke through, fighting back coughs as the dust irritated their throats and made their eyes water. Ahead of them was the fight, as loud as ever and making the very air vibrate with every impact.

'You guys ready?' Hikari asked the two Digimon as they leapt down to the ground, ready to Digivolve and finally take the fight to the creature that had caused so much death and destruction in such a short time, and so close to where they lived.

'There's not going to be anything left of him when we're finished,' Patomon said.

'Then let's do it,' Takeru said.

He and Hikari pulled out their Digivices and pointed them at their partners, the screens blazing with light that shot out to engulf both Gatomon and Patomon, and when the light faded they had changed into their Ultimate forms of angels dressed in resplendent robes and armour with their wings unfurled and ready for flight.

They shot off towards the actual fight with Hikari and Takeru close behind, finding some semblance of cover behind a pile of rubble that had once been the upper floor of a nearby apartment block until an errant blast brought it down. There was little chance it could actually stop any kind of blast from either Digimon but it provided some protection from any shrapnel or debris that was going to get thrown around, and they hunkered down behind it as they peered out across the dust filled battlefield.

'Which one do we help?' Takeru asked as they watched the two fighters come together again with an almighty crash.

'Let's try and figure out who they are, first,' Hikari said. 'Then we can start picking sides.'

'Yeah,' Takeru said with a nod as he squinted at hazy figures.

Both of them looked to be dull in colouration, grey maybe or silver, with a faint sheen that suggested they were both robotic Digimon, which tied in with the pulsating zap of energy blasts and the roar of jets as one of the figures soared into the air on a pillar of brilliant flame to escape an attack by the other, larger Digimon before rushing down again, blasting away as they did. In response, that Digimon launched what looked to be missiles at the incoming figure. One missed, one didn't, and the flying Digimon landed with a crash from the force of the explosion, which had the added benefit of pushing just enough smoke away to reveal them.

One was an Andromon, Hikari saw, but a badly beaten up one at that judging by the cracks and dents in its armour even as it continued to fight against the other Digimon, launching missile after missile and blast after blast at it, though that was one she hadn't seen before, and yet it seemed maddeningly familiar for some reason. Like the Andromon it was clad from head to toe in burnished grey armour but more uniformly, with no exposed flesh or hair, and sleeker too. On its back were the same jets that had launched it up into the air, and cannons of some description sat atop its forearms and shoulders. One of them appeared to spark and stutter as the unknown Digimon struggled upright, shaking off the effects of the missile impact and crash, but the other three worked just fine and unleashed a torrent of electric blue lasers.

The Andromon staggered back under the assault but not by much, launching an attack of its own to throw a solid punch into the other Digimon's featureless face as it ran forwards.

'So who do we fight?' Takeru asked. 'Andromon, or the other guy?'

'He doesn't look like any Digimon I've seen before,' Hikari said. 'But I feel like I've seen it somewhere before, and recently.'

'Like the news?' Takeru suggested in a grim tone. 'Because I know I've seen it somewhere before, in all those news clips about the Digimon attacks.'

The moment Takeru said that, Hikari found herself agreeing with him. Even though the captured images of the attacks were always blurry or too distant, they captured just enough to show the same silvery figure at each of the attacks, and even though the dust in the air was making it hard to tell right now she was certain her boyfriend was right. She had seen the other Digimon on the news, and how often it appeared could only mean it was the aggressor in each instance and the other Digimon were just the partners of other people that tried to stand up and stop it.

'Angewomon!' she cried out to her partner. 'Help the Andromon. It's the other Digimon that's behind these attacks.'

The angel Digimon nodded in understanding and, with MagnaAngemon at her side, flew straight for the Digimon as it recovered from the Andromon's punch just in time to see the two new combatants launch attacks of their own. It rocketed away and soared up into the air where it hung for several long moments, ducking and dodging as bolts of energy were sent its way, scanning the area for something, and Hikari realised only too late that it was looking for them.

She called out for Angewomon but the Digimon had already spotted them and came screaming down. Fully expecting it to attack them like it had the Andromon, Hikari and Takeru threw up their arms on reflex in preparation for the lasers that were sure to come, then lowered them in confusion when they didn't.

Instead they saw the Digimon towering over them, pointing at Angewomon and MagnaAngemon as they rushed to rescue their partners, as it said, 'Take them and leave. This doesn't concern you.'

'No!' Takeru shouted. 'You killed all those people back there, and everywhere else you've attacked, and we're here to stop you. Get him, MagnaAngemon!'

'You don't-' the Digimon started to say, but cut itself off and flew up and away from MagnaAngemon as he surged forward with his sword held at the ready, only to get caught mid-air by Angewomon as she loosed off one of her celestial arrows, correctly predicting what the Digimon would do when it sensed an attack was coming.

The bolt hit straight and true and enveloped the Digimon in an explosion of light, sending it careering into a nearby building, and Hikari let out a whoop of joy at the sight. Andromon added to the attack with more missiles, creating even more explosions, but this failed to even slow the Digimon because it burst from the rocky tomb and shot straight for Angewomon, driving its fist straight into her midriff and forcing all the air from her lungs. The angel gasped and doubled over in pain, and got kicked away as the Digimon shifted to deal with MagnaAngemon who raised his sword, ready to meet any attack.

It came, as expected, but quicker than anything before it and MagnaAngemon was soon spinning from the force of the blow and dropped to all floors, dazed and disorientated by a roundhouse kick to the face, and the elation Hikari felt at seeing the Digimon getting thrown into a building quickly evaporated as it came right at her and Takeru again, only now their partners were momentarily incapacitated.

'Take them and leave,' the Digimon ordered, pointing again at the angels as they struggled to recover. 'This is far bigger than either of you realise.'

'I'm sure it is,' Hikari said. 'But you killed all those people in the street, and everywhere else. We're not stopping until you're done.'

'I'm not the one who killed those people,' the Digimon said, anger in its voice. 'That was all the Andromon's doing. I'm trying-'

Another arrow from Angewomon hit it again, cutting it off, and the Digimon rotated to meet the threat. Angewomon looked unsteady on her feet but she had another arrow drawn, ready to defend her partner to the last, and loosed it off as the Digimon rushed closer, only for MagnaAngemon to sideswipe it and tackle it to the ground before the arrow could make contact. There they traded blows as they grappled in the dust, but soon MagnaAngemon was in an armlock and being used as a shield against Angewomon, who had readied her arrow again.

She hesitated, unable to strike the Digimon without hitting her friend as well, which was the opening the Digimon needed to poke an arm out from around the angel and pepper her with a flurry of lasers. A pained scream erupted from Angewomon and she fell to the floor, arrow vanishing, followed soon after by MagnaAngemon who got a similar amount of blasts right in his back.

With both angels down yet again the Digimon resumed its attack on the Andromon, driving it away from them and Hikari and Takeru as they called out for their partners to get back up and keep fighting. They made it to their hands and knees, evidently straining.

'It's strong,' MagnaAngemon said through gritted teeth. 'I've never fought anything like it before.'

'We can't give up,' Angewomon said. 'Not when so many innocents have lost their lives to it.'

'You can do it,' Takeru shouted. 'You have to!'

'We will!' MagnaAngemon shouted back, bolstered by the determination of his partner.

Together, he and Angewomon struggled to their feet and stood as one, summoning their last reserves of strength as the Andromon counterattacked and sent the unknown Digimon flying backwards into a building. Dust and smoke billowed from the point of impact and when it cleared, the Digimon was lying supine on a bed of rubble that it didn't try to move up off of as the other three Digimon approached, MagnaAngemon in the middle with his sword held high, ready for a finishing blow.

He approached the Digimon and brought the sword down, but as he did the Digimon moved with lightning quickness, a blade of energy appearing in its hand that it held up to stop MagnaAngemon's attack cold.

'I'm not the enemy here,' it said, standing up and forcing MagnaAngemon back a step or two as their blades remained locked together. Then, with a move Hikari could barely register, manipulated the angel's sword to swipe across Angewomon's exposed stomach. She screamed in pain and Hikari felt it too, fighting the urge to rush into the middle of everything to help her partner, resigning herself to continue watching as MagnaAngemon went to help his friend, discarding his sword for the moment and allowing the unknown Digimon to step closer to Andromon, blade of energy held high.

'Behind you!' Takeru shouted, just a little too late, as by the time MagnaAngemon turned around to see what was happening the Digimon had already swung downwards and cut through one of Andromon's arms.

It fell to the floor then exploded into data as the Andromon reeled back in pain, its sole remaining hand clutching the wound that was once its shoulder, and before it could recover the Digimon thrust forward with the energy blade right through the Andromon's chest. For a split second nothing happened, then the Andromon dissolved into data piece by piece as the mortal wound made itself known until nothing was left.

Hikari screamed in anger and sorrow, forgetting her previous decision to remain hidden behind the rubble and ran straight across the battlefield to the Digimon as it remained locked in position, sword still aglow and right where the Andromon had been standing only a few seconds ago.

As she approached, the Digimon lowered the sword and extinguished it as silence fell over the area, barring the sharp cracks of Hikari's feet as she ran through the rubble and debris or the pained hisses coming from Angewomon as she held her wound, MagnaAngemon at her side.

'You monster!' Hikari shouted at the Digimon which had yet to move, standing right before it so she could look into its face, or what passed for one. She was mildly surprised to see that it wasn't that much taller than her, but that shock was subsumed beneath the rage she had towards the Digimon.

'Why did you kill that Andromon?' she said. 'Why did you kill all those other people? Why have you been attacking our home for all this time?'

The anger she had towards the Digimon exploded out of Hikari as she continued to scream and shout at the motionless figure before her, knowing full well it could easily kill her before Angewomon or MagnaAngemon could even react, and not even Takeru pulling on her arm could make her leave. She bent down and grabbed a chunk of concrete half the size of her fist and threw it at the Digimon, its lack of a response serving only to anger her further, but all the rubble did was clang off the Digimon's chest.

'Why did you do it?' Hikari screamed. 'Why? They were innocent people. Why did you kill them?'

At long last the Digimon moved, looking directly at her, and said, 'I didn't. The Andromon did. I was trying to stop it from hurting anyone else.'

'Oh, yeah, like we're going to believe that,' Takeru yelled from beside Hikari, gesturing angrily at Angewomon and her wound. 'You attacked our Digimon.'

'They struck first,' the Digimon said. 'I acted only in self-defence.'

'Those lasers sure felt like self-defence,' MagnaAngemon said as he stood, sword in his hand, and pointed it at the Digimon. 'And that arm lock.'

'I could have done a whole lot worse,' the Digimon said, revolving in a flash to meet the strike from MagnaAngemon with its energy sword, blocking it once again, then shoved the angel back and jumped away from both him and Hikari and Takeru, assuming a defensive stance. 'And I will do a whole lot worse if you don't stand down now, and revert to your normal forms.'

'So you can hurt more people?' Angewomon said with a grunt, forcing herself upright as she held her still open wound. 'That's not going to happen.'

'I don't want to fight you,' the Digimon said. 'Believe me when I say there's more going on than you realise. So once more, revert to your normal forms _now_ and we can avoid another battle.'

'Why don't you revert to _your_ normal form?' Hikari shot back. 'We don't want to fight you either, but we will if you don't stand down now.'

'Please,' the Digimon said, pleading almost. 'I don't want to have to kill anyone else, Hikari. Have Angewomon back to Gatomon. I need to know she can still do that.'

The fact the Digimon knew Hikari's name came as more of a shock than the fact it was saying please, or that it knew her partner's usual form was Gatomon rather than Salamon, but it wasn't enough to convince her or Takeru that the Digimon was on their side.

MagnaAngemon charged towards the Digimon again and locked blades with it, forcing it back a step or two, and pressed the apparent advantage right up until a rocket sped across the area into his back right where his six wings sprouted from it. He convulsed in pain and gave the other Digimon a chance to retaliate, delivering a potent headbutt that knocked the angel Digimon staggering back as a second rocket flew from a different spot and hit Angewomon in the side.

Hikari span to face the direct the second missile had come from, fearing the Digimon had backup, then recoiled in pain as high intensity floodlights came on and bathed the area in a harsh, electric light that made her eyes throb. She threw her arms up to block the light and squinted against the blinding light, seeing shadowy figures sweeping into the area and point weapons of some kind at Angewomon and MagnaAngemon as they recovered from the two blasts. There had to be something special about the explosive used because it had knocked them both to their knees, and thoughts of some anti-Digimon outfit sprang to Hikari's mind.

Then her eyes adjusted and she saw that the figures wore charcoal grey camouflage fatigues with the JSDF emblem on their shoulders, meaning they were likely soldiers responding to the attack, and her worries began to abate for the briefest of moments. Right up until she remembered that they'd opened fire on her Digimon and were now pointing their guns at Angewomon, and MagnaAngemon, but not the unknown Digimon that continued to keep away from them all. In fact, some of the troops were moving to stand between it and the DigiDestined, forming a barrier.

'Don't shoot!' Takeru shouted to the nearest soldier that had a gun trained on MagnaAngemon. 'We're not the bad guys here. That one is.'

'Order your partner to stand down,' the soldier shouted back. 'Have him revert to his rookie form and stand down. Do it now.'

'I'm not doing anything you tell me to,' Takeru said. 'We're not the ones who did all this. It was that one.'

He gestured towards the Digimon that had attacked Andromon as it remained where MagnaAngemon had forced it, energy sword still active and held poised ready for combat, then looked again when he took notice of the vanguard of soldiers between it and them.

'What are you doing?' Takeru yelled. 'That's the bad guy, here. Point your guns at him!'

'My gun is pointed right where it needs to be,' the soldier said. 'And until I see these Digimon revert back to their standard forms, it's not going anywhere.'

'What-' Takeru said, flustered by the sudden shifting of roles. The last time they had interacted with members of the Japanese government regarding Digimon, it was understood that the DigiDestined and their partners were firmly on the country's side. Being held under the point of a gun was not how things were supposed to go.

But things were slowly becoming clear to Hikari as she kept her eyes on the Digimon as it stood only a few dozen metres from her, and in air that was rapidly clearing of dust now the battle was over and nobody was creating explosions. The design had seemed maddeningly familiar to Hikari because she had seen it before, and not just from the news reports on the attacks. She had seen it in her dreams only last night, or a more advanced version of what was currently standing before her, and she began to see distinctly human touches in how it looked that marked it as not being a Digimon, but rather a suit of armour.

The realisation of that hit her like a physical blow and she stumbled forward a few paces, knocked off balance, then recovered and took tentative steps closer to the imposing figure even as Angewomon called out for her to back away, but Hikari wouldn't stop until she knew for certain.

'Daisuke?' she whispered. 'Is that you?'

The Digimon, which wasn't actually a Digimon, barely reacted to hearing that name but Hikari saw its head twitch ever so slightly towards her.

'It is,' she went on. 'It's you, Daisuke. You're inside there.'

'What?' Takeru said, now confused more than flustered. 'Daisuke? That can't be him. He's in America by now, that jerk.'

'No,' Hikari said. 'He's not. He's standing right here, in front of us, wearing some kind of suit that lets him fight on par with Ultimate level Digimon.'

She tried to walk up to the suit but the soldiers standing in front of it closed ranks and barred her access, with one in particular grabbing hold of her shoulder to push Hikari away from the figure.

'I'm right, aren't I?' she said. 'Tell me I'm right, Daisuke. It's you in there.'

'You need to have Angewomon and MagnaAngemon revert pack to Gatomon and Patomon,' he said, the silence finally allowing Hikari to actually listen to the voice properly. It might have been buried beneath electronic warbles and modulation, but it was Daisuke's coming from the suit. 'Please, Hikari. We don't want to have to kill them.'

'You won't,' Hikari said, but even she could hear the lack of conviction on her own voice. She had seen Daisuke kill an Andromon only a few short minutes ago, so she knew he was fully capable of killing Digimon.

'Please,' Daisuke said. 'This is important. Have them turn back to normal. We won't ask again.'

'It really is him,' Takeru said in a low voice, stunned by the new turn of events. He moved up to join Hikari in staring at Daisuke in his suit of armour even as the JSDF soldiers continued to point their weapons at their partners, with lethal intent.

The shock lasted for all of a second and was replaced by anger as Takeru's face contorted with rage as the full scope of what Daisuke wearing that suit meant, of how he had spent the last two years lying to them that he was in America attending a culinary college and that he had lied direct to their faces only a few hours ago. Even Hikari couldn't help but feel like exploding at Daisuke for the deception and over something as big as this. He should have told them all from the start what he was doing, and damn whatever the people in charge of this whole thing had said about keeping the rest of them in the dark.

For the moment, though, she just thought of her dream and how Daisuke, wearing a suit similar to this one, had gotten himself killed fighting the giant monster in an area of Odaiba not unlike this one. She drew her arms close around her as a chill swept through her.

'You son of a bitch!' Takeru shouted at his friend, or former friend. 'You lied to all of us!'

Daisuke said nothing back to that, averting his gaze off the two DigiDestined and onto their partners as they stood behind them, recovered from the missile impacts and recovering from their bout with him, Angewomon in particular nursing a wound that was almost fully healed.

'All troops, stand ready to engage,' Daisuke said instead, his voice echoing across the area. 'On my mark, only.'

'You're going to attack them?' Takeru said. 'But they're our partners.'

'So have them revert back to Patomon and Gatomon,' Daisuke said back. 'Otherwise, we'll try and force them to.'

'Not gonna happen,' Takeru said. Behind him, MagnaAngemon tensed and held his sword at the ready, but looked uncertain about the change in circumstances. They had never had to fight against human forces before, unless they counted their battle against Ken during his time as the Digimon Emperor, but now they were facing down the guns of more than forty soldiers, plus someone they viewed as a teammate.

Hikari heard Daisuke give a resigned sigh as his shoulders seemed to sag slightly, and then he said, 'Units one through four, focus fire on MagnaAngemon. Five and six, Angewomon. On my mark.'

His arms came up, and with them came the cannons located there. They and the two on his back began to slowly spool up as the soldiers around him tucked their rifles and machineguns tight against their shoulders in preparation to fire. Then she saw the troops further back hefting tubular weapons in firing positions and knew, for definite, they weren't bluffing about attacking Angewomon or MagnaAngemon.

She couldn't let that happen.

'Wait!' she called out, rushing to stand directly in front of her partner. 'Don't shoot!'

'Hikari, what are you doing?' Angewomon said. 'Get out of here.'

'You can't fight them,' Hikari said, turning to look at the angel behind her. 'They'll hurt you.'

'They can try,' Angewomon said.

'And we will,' Daisuke said. 'You've got ten seconds before I give the order, Hikari. Don't think I'll go easy on them because they're your partners, because I won't. Have them revert back. I won't ask again.'

His weapons hadn't stopped spinning and his gaze hadn't moved away from the Digimon, and Hikari knew he was counting to ten inside that featureless helmet. She knew that powerful electric blue lasers were going to erupt from him when he finished counting and the soldiers around him were going to add their own firepower into the mixture. There was always a chance Angewomon could handle them all without causing too much serious injury, but Hikari was rethinking all her prior conclusions about the news articles she had watched, of how the silvery figure was the one starting the attacks.

With the knowledge it was Daisuke in a suit, she realised that things were the other way around and he was _responding_ to attacks by rampant Digimon, rather than starting them, and had been at it for two years or so, just like the soldiers around her probably had. They were likely experts at taking down powerful Digimon like Angewomon and MagnaAngemon and equipped with the necessary weapons, and they had to be fighting on the same side as her and Takeru and the other DigiDestined, right? Why else would Daisuke be working alongside them?

'Angewomon, change back,' Hikari said quickly, her gaze resting squarely on Daisuke. 'Now.'

'Hikari, you can't be-' Angewomon started to say in protest, but her partner cut her off with a more firm sounding now, and a desperate please.

The angel hesitated then complied, a white light engulfing her as she reverted back into Gatomon and promptly collapsed from exhaustion by her partner's feet. Hikari scooped the little cat Digimon up in her arms and cradled Gatomon's limp form without ever taking her eyes off Daisuke, who continued to avoid looking at her as he trained all his weapons onto MagnaAngemon.

'What are you doing?' Takeru said to her. 'You're doing what that jackass says?'

'There's more to this than we know,' Hikari said quietly, echoing Daisuke's earlier warnings. 'If Daisuke has really been doing this for two years, then he knows something we don't. It's better we do what he tells us to do until we know what he does.'

Takeru looked torn between shouting at her and shouting at Daisuke, or just trying to pummel the latter over his betrayal, but he was keenly aware of the short countdown Daisuke was going through and reluctantly did as asked, giving the same order Hikari had given to MagnaAngemon who quickly reverted back to Patomon and landed atop his partner's head with lidded eyes, a deep seated fatigue meaning he was unable to do much else.

'Happy now?' Takeru spat at Daisuke who made no outward reaction to the comment, gesturing for the troops around him to lower their weapons as his own slowed to a gradual stop.

Instantly the soldiers dispersed into smaller groups and began fanning out into the ruined aftermath of the battle, no doubt searching for survivors, while a smaller number of them remained close by Daisuke akin to a praetorian guard, forming an organic barrier between him and the two DigiDestined.

'What's going on?' Hikari said. 'You have to tell us, Daisuke.'

He panned his gaze towards her but remained silent, as though giving her a disapproving stare, then looked at something behind her and Hikari turned to see an officer approaching them. She wasn't familiar enough with the rank insignia of the JSDF to know what the man's rank was but she assumed it was high given the way the other soldiers snapped to attention when he walked by. He made a beeline straight for Daisuke who just looked at him expectantly, as if this was something they had done before, which they probably had.

'We've detected another surge,' the officer said in a curt, clear voice. 'Fifty miles south and west of here. Readings indicate it's probably an Ultimate and two Champions.'

'Terrain?' Daisuke asked.

'Rural, for what it's worth,' the officer said with a shrug. 'But there's a town nearby that might get caught up if you're not quick enough.'

'I'll head there at best speed,' Daisuke said. 'Unless you want to speak with me on anything before I go?'

Even though his attention remained on the officer, Hikari knew he was referring to her and Takeru and their newfound knowledge he was piloting an advanced suit of armour, and part of some anti-Digimon unit operating within the JSDF. But the officer shook his head.

'Nothing that can't wait until later,' he said. 'The coordinates have been uploaded to the suit and Bravo Company is moving in to lend any assistance they can, though they'll be arriving sometime after you.'

'Understood,' Daisuke said. 'Let me know if anything else happens.'

'You'll be the first to know,' the officer said.

He and the soldiers broke their formation around Daisuke and took several steps back, then, before Hikari or Takeru could call out to him, Daisuke shot up into the air atop a column of blue fire and arced towards the south and west. Twenty seconds later he was little more than a bright speck in the sky, and twenty seconds after that he was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The officer waited until Daisuke was lost to sight then span on his heel and started back the way he had come, pausing only when he drew level with Hikari and Takeru.

'If you'd like to follow me, please,' he said.

'Oh, no,' Takeru said. 'We're not going anywhere with you until you answer some questions.'

'Which I'm more than happy to do,' the officer said, seemingly unfazed by the anger creeping into Takeru's tone as he moved into a confrontational posture, hands clenched by his sides and a snarl on his face. 'But not here, and not now.'

'And why the hell not?' Takeru said.

'Because I'd rather we speak somewhere a little more civilised,' the officer said. 'Rather than the aftermath of a battle where the air is thick with dust, and we're surrounded by rubble, and any ruptured gas lines could ignite at any minute, and because my troops are going to be pulling out those injured and killed in the attack right in front of us.

'Unless you prefer to look on as bloodied bodies are laid out right in front of you, Takeru.'

The officer gave him a disdainful look at that before resuming his walk towards a gap between two ruined buildings where a sleek, black sedan was waiting at the kerb. Hikari gave Takeru an apologetic shrug then hurried after the officer, holding the still comatose Gatomon close as she traversed the uneven ground. Already dozens upon hundreds of thoughts were racing around inside her head over the revelation Daisuke was involved in the attacks that had swept across the globe these past two years, as was a feeling of betrayal that he had had kept something so big from them.

'I don't like this guy,' Takeru said when he had caught up with his girlfriend, glowering at the officer's back.

'That's what you're focusing on right now?' Hikari said back. 'We just learned that Daisuke has been lying to us for months now, and we watched him destroy an Andromon right in front of our eyes, and all you can focus on is that you don't like this guy?'

She jerked her head at the soldier then gave Takeru an unhappy look which he returned for a brief moment, then turned away as it morphed into a more downbeat expression as he admitted to himself she was right. He shrugged back.

'My head's all over the place,' he said quietly. 'Like you said, Daisuke's been lying to us, probably since these attacks started. I thought he was our friend.'

His hands clenched into fists again but then they relaxed as Hikari wormed her fingers in between his, and gave them a reassuring squeeze. She added a faint smile as well which Takeru happily returned. Ahead, the officer had reached the car and was holding the backdoor open for the two DigiDestined to get in, looking back at both of them with that same disdainful expression as before. In fact, it was a common enough look on some of the other nearby soldiers that happened to be watching them walk up, made all the more worse by the fact they all carried rifles that were kept pointed in their general direction.

Hikari began to share Takeru's feelings of disliking the officer as she slid into the backseat of the car and clipped her seatbelt into place. Takeru got in beside her and they both waited for the officer to join them in the vehicle. He sat in the driver's seat and fired up the engine, pulling away from the kerb without even checking for oncoming traffic. Not that there was any, not with the street cordoned off by soldiers keeping the public at bay.

'So,' Takeru said. 'Are you ready to answer those questions now?'

'No,' the officer said, glancing back at his passengers in the rear-view mirror.

'I thought you said you were going to answer them,' Hikari said.

'And I will,' the officer said. 'But if you recall, I mentioned that I wouldn't do it here and now, and that I'd prefer we do it in a more civilised locale. The site of the battle was not civilised, and neither is the inside of a car.'

'Are you being smart with us?' Takeru said with a low growl.

'No,' the officer said. 'Are you being dumb with me?'

He locked eyes with Takeru again in the mirror, matching the young teen's angry gaze with a neutral expression before going on to say, 'I'm also not going to answer questions at this current time, as it is late in the evening and you both are probably too emotional following recent revelations.'

'So if not here and now,' Takeru said. 'Where and when?'

'Tomorrow,' the officer said. 'Nine o'clock, at our unit's base of operations. A driver will be along at eight to take you both there, should you still want the answers to whatever questions you have. Until then, I suggest you try and get some rest. Once you've sent out a mass text or phone call or whatever to the other DigiDestined, and tried to make contact with Daisuke, of course.'

'Are you going to bring the others in?' Hikari asked. 'They have a right to know, as well.'

'Certainly,' the officer said. 'Better you all learn together why you need to keep out of this whole thing.'

'Like hell we're gonna do that,' Takeru said, loudly enough that both Patomon and Gatomon roused themselves from their slumber to look at him.

'You should,' the officer said. 'Because if you don't, you could end up losing Patomon for good this time.'

Nothing more was said after that, the officer deftly navigating the car through the various streets and junctions back to the Yagami apartment in a fraction of the time it had taken Hikari and Takeru to run it, and with much less sweating, and he drove off without saying goodbye to the DigiDestined as they alighted from the vehicle. They said nothing either and watched, mutely, as the sedan headed out for parts unknown before swivelling their gaze into the general direction Daisuke had flown off towards.

They saw nothing on the horizon, not even bright flashes from explosions, and all the news had was blurry footage of dust clouds and strobing blue lights. Hikari watched it anyway, hoping to get a glimpse of Daisuke in his suit, even as her fingers worked overtime sending out masses of emails and texts to everyone about what had happened, and then rapid responses to their shocked replies when she wasn't cycling through three different phone calls. She managed to get enough of a break from them all to try Daisuke, just as the officer had said she would, but got nothing except his voicemail each time she tried.

She left a short message asking him to call back, even though she knew he wouldn't, then resigned herself to just waiting for tomorrow to hurry up and arrive. Takeru was more restless, pacing up and down the apartment like a caged animal, eyes darting from side to side as he thought over things or just imagined himself pummelling Daisuke to a bloody pulp for lying to them all. That had been a common feeling across all the DigiDestined when they read and understood just what Daisuke had been doing these past two years, none more so than Ken.

He had sounded so broken over the phone when he called Hikari back after reading her email, astounded and in denial that Daisuke had kept something as big as this from him for so long, and then straight up lied to his face about what he was really doing. She imagined he was constantly calling Daisuke's number to confirm for himself, and idly wondered if he had actually gotten through. If there was anyone Daisuke would answer, it had to be Ken.

It struck her as strange that he hadn't answered her calls, but then again he had looked at her with such unbridled anger earlier that Hikari revised her assumption, then spent the best part of an hour thinking to herself over just what she might have done to earn such a look from someone who had, for a long while, held a massive crush on her. Nothing came to mind so Hikari gave that up as well, going back to watching the news reports on the attacks as a deep-seated fatigue began tugging at her.

She kept promising herself that she'd turn the television off before long and head to bed, so she'd be refreshed and ready for the meeting the next day, but the next thing she knew it was morning and she was still on the settee, lying on her side with Takeru curled up on the other one. Outside the sky had brightened dramatically but the prophesised storm had come and brought with it great lashings of rain that made everything seem all the more miserable.

Hikari groaned, both at the weather and the dull ache filling her body after spending the night on the sofa, and pushed herself upright to keep herself from falling back to sleep. She rubbed her eyes lethargically and stared dumbly at the news feed as a pair of anchors discussed the spate of attacks that had swept across Japan last night, including the dramatic number of fatalities that had occurred. The usual blurry photos accompanied them, flashing onto the screen every now and then, but there was nothing new for Hikari to learn. That, and she'd soon be getting all the answers she could want from the very people defending the world from these rampant Digimon.

'Takeru,' she mumbled, standing and stretching and padding over to her boyfriend. 'C'mon. You need to wake up.'

She shook his shoulder a few times until he began stirring, noting the hair on one side of his head was matted and sticking up in random places after a full night of rubbing against the pillow, and she fought to suppress a smile at that.

'Is it morning already?' he said, rolling onto his back to stare listlessly up at the ceiling.

'Yeah,' Hikari said. She glanced at the television again and spotted it was just after half past seven, less than thirty minutes before their driver was supposed to arrive. 'Come on. We have to get ready.'

'All right.'

Takeru yawned and sat up, a slack expression on his face, then he stood with the grace of a zombie and shuffled into the apartment's kitchen as Hikari made for the bathroom, jumping into the shower and standing beneath the warm, cascading water in an attempt to help wake herself up and work out some knots in her muscles. Then she and Takeru swapped places and she went into the kitchen, dressed in a fresh set of clothes, and forced a stale muffin down her throat that Takeru had kindly left out for her. They had nothing else in the cupboards that could be eaten quickly, and they had little to no time before their driver arrived.

'What are you going to ask about?' Hikari said to Takeru when he emerged from the bathroom, still dressed in yesterday's clothes but freshly showered.

'A couple of things,' he said. 'Like why they kept everything from us, and why Daisuke joined them, and why that guy kept being a jerk to us. How about you?'

'I just want to know what they're doing to Daisuke,' Hikari said.

'Why?' Takeru said. 'He's a jerk, that's why. Maybe we never realised it before now.'

'No, that's not it,' Hikari said, more sternly than she intended. 'He's always been our friend, through thick and thin. Daisuke would never act like that around us. That means there has to be something about whatever he's involved in that's doing it. Besides, you saw how thin and pale he was. Something is wrong with him.'

Takeru opened his mouth to argue but a knock at the door cut him, a curt triple-knock that came right as the clock struck eight, so he let out a sigh and moved towards the door and opened it to reveal a soldier dressed in the same charcoal fatigues as before, but with stripes on his uniform rather than metal bars. He bowed ever so slightly and said, 'I'm your driver. If you'd like to follow me.'

He stepped back and started for the nearby stairs, moving down them without even turning around to confirm that Hikari and Takeru were following or had even locked up the apartment, as if he knew ahead of time they were going to go with him to the meeting, which they did. They hurried after the soldier down the stairs and out to another black sedan waiting at the kerb. Unlike before, the soldier neglected to open the rear doors for the two DigiDestined and slid into the driver's seat, waiting, then took off once they were strapped in, Gatomon and Patomon in their laps.

The soldier didn't say a single thing during the ride and neither did Hikari and Takeru, enduring the hour long drive in complete silence barring the rumble of the engine and the pouring rain until they arrived at an open lot on the outskirts of the city. It was wide open and ringed by hurricane fencing, with just three metal hangars sitting off to one side on an expansive tarmac apron. It could have been a small, private airfield if not for the lack of aircraft, and the presence of numerous tracked vehicles sporting wicked looking cannons on armoured turrets.

Hikari looked at one as the car drove in and found a parking space outside the middle hangar, seeing numerous dents and scorched metal on the vehicle's armour plating, plus several tally marks. She counted them up and reached fourteen, and fought back a wave of revulsion when she realised this was probably a kill count, for either the vehicle or the troops that manned, and that each represented a Digimon given what this group's role was.

She held Gatomon close and got out of the vehicle, right into the pouring rain, and made a mad dash for a nearby doorway where another soldier was stood. In one hand was a clipboard, and though the other was empty it was hanging precariously close to a holstered pistol on his thigh. He waited until Hikari and Takeru were almost upon him then brought the clipboard up, scanning the contents.

'Names?' he said in a monotone voice.

'Who do you think?' Takeru said, impatiently. Unlike the soldier, who had a camouflaged poncho on, neither he nor Hikari had any kind of wet weather gear and the rain had already soaked their clothes and was beginning to chill them to the bone.

'Names?' the soldier said again, still in that monotone voice.

'We're supposed to be here,' Takeru said again. 'It's not like somebody from the street can just walk in, not past that guardhouse at the gate, and not in one of your cars.'

'What car?' the soldier said.

'That one,' Takeru said, spinning to point at the car but did a double take when he saw the space was empty again. He turned back to the soldier with the clipboard. 'The one you saw pull up.'

'I didn't see any cars,' the soldier said.

'But, you must have,' Takeru said, only to peter out as it dawned on him, and Hikari as well, that the soldier was deliberately being obstructive towards them and that the only way past him, and out of the rain, was to give their names. So they did.

The soldier made a show of scanning the whole clipboard for Hikari Yagami and Takeru Takashi, running his finger down a list that couldn't have held more than a dozen names at best, before nodding after a solid twenty seconds of searching and turned to face the door, opening it and stepping through into the dimly lit interior. Hikari and Takeru hurried after him and shook themselves as dry as they could manage once they were inside, then followed the soldier to the meeting room.

Both sides of the hangar had been lined with temporary rooms built out of cheap plywood and given various labels and nomenclature that Hikari didn't understand or recognise, and at the far end of the building was a communal kitchen currently playing host to half a dozen other soldiers dressed in their camouflage fatigues as they made themselves drinks or chowed down on a late breakfast. She caught a whiff of eggs and tea and her stomach growled in response, and she gave it a longing look as the soldier arrived at the correct door and knocked three times, paused, then opened up and stepped in.

'Last two, sir,' the soldier said, snapping to attention and speaking to the officer from last night as he leaned against the opposite wall.

Between him and the door was a long table, built out of the same cheap wood as the room itself but battered and abused by dozens of meetings. What had been said at these meetings, Hikari could only imagine but she knew what was going to be spoken about at this one, and she knew everyone sitting around the table.

'Hey, little bro,' Yamato said when he saw Takeru enter. 'Guess they gave you the third degree, too.'

Like his younger brother, Yamato was wet from the rain with his hair plastered against his forehead and he shot a glare at the soldier that had escorted Takeru and Hikari inside. The soldier ignored it then slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind him and sealing it off from the rest of the world, for what it was worth. They could still hear the clatter and hubbub of the soldiers as they milled about in the kitchen, and the roaring of the rain as it pounded against the hangar's roof.

The officer at the head of the table waited a few minutes, sipping at a cup of coffee, then raised his head to look at each of the DigiDestined in turn before returning his gaze to the contents of his cup.

'Now that we're all here, we can begin,' he said. 'My name is Captain Ishida. As you may have guessed, I'm part of a specialised unit within the Japanese Self Defence Force tasked with responding to Digimon attacks within Japan, and further afield should the need arise. This is our current base of operations and will be for the foreseeable future. If you have questions, as I'm sure you do, feel free to ask them.'


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

At first, nobody spoke.

None of them wanted to be the one that asked the initial question and got the ball rolling, fearful that whatever scenarios they had imagined since learning the truth would pale in comparison to the answers Ishida would give them. So they sat in silence and stared, uneasily, at the officer as he sipped at his coffee until it was gone, clipping the empty mug to his belt and leaning back against the wall behind him. Ishida himself seemed unwilling to offer answers of his own volition, lethargically swinging his gaze from one DigiDestined to another, and to their partners, to give each some small appraisal with the occasional look at his watch.

'Seriously, any time,' he eventually said. 'Unless you're sending them to me telepathically, in which case stop. I can't read minds. So make like adults and use your words, or use the door and leave. We can't just sit here in silence until the end of the day.'

He gestured at the door behind everyone and some of them glanced at it on reflex, Hikari included, but she forced her attention back to Ishida before long, watching him back. He didn't seem overly happy to be here, meeting with them all, but at the same time he appeared resigned to the fact he was, like this was something he knew was bound to happen eventually, which it probably was. Sooner or later, the DigiDestined would have gained traction in their investigation into these Digimon attacks and come into conflict with Capitan Ishida's group, forcing a sit-down meeting between the two.

_Would we have, though? _Hikari thought glumly to herself, realising that even with attacks happening in their own backyard, none of them had come any closer to understanding how or why these attacks were occurring. Shame filled her at that and she averted her gaze from Ishida momentarily.

When she returned it Hikari saw Ishida was looking directly at her with his appraising stare, lingering a fraction of a second longer on her that he had everyone else. Then his eyes narrowed slightly and he moved on to Takeru, disdain edging onto his face as he looked at the blonde teen who was still soaking wet from the rain. She was too, but the room was warm at least and they were both slowly drying out.

'So,' Koushiro finally said, breaking the silence and tense atmosphere that had fallen over them all. 'These rogue Digimon. Where do they come from?'

'At last,' Ishida muttered. Then, louder, said, 'They not rogue Digimon.'

'They have to be,' Koushiro said. 'Why else would they attack our home like this?'

'Because they're infected,' Ishida said. 'With a virus. It's a mixture of the corruption spread by Meicoomon and the coding for your Dark Spirals, Ken, which leads us to believe somebody was responsible for creating and unleashing it.'

'How can you be so sure?' Koushiro asked while, on the other side of the table, Ken's face fell at the news something from his time as the Digimon Emperor had come back to mar their lives once again. His hands went limp in his lap but Miyako intertwined her fingers with his.

'Because the coding for the virus is too clean,' Ishida said. 'There's no erroneous or redundant code, and we have no reason to believe that the data for either the corruption or the Spirals ever came anywhere near one another. So, someone or something created the virus, and then unleashed it upon the world.'

'It's not another human, is it?' Taichi asked.

'We have no reason to think so,' Ishida said, shaking his head. 'They would have to have knowledge of both Meicoomon's infection and the Dark Rings, and the programming knowhow to fuse them into a working product, and the only possible suspects are both sat right here in this room.'

He nodded at Koushiro and Ken in turn, then added, 'Which means the culprit is likely another Digimon, probably one with plans of global conquest.'

'Geez, that's unoriginal,' Yamato muttered under his breath. 'It's like they send them to the same school or something.'

'Every would-be tyrant or dictator has pretty much had the same goal,' Ishida said. 'Expansion of their land and rule, as far as they can, however they can. And it's better than them wanting to destroy the whole planet.'

'How can you be sure that's not their goal?' Takeru said.

'Because they're only going after a certain type of strategic target,' Ishida said. 'Namely, any Digimon that could stand up to them when their invasion finally happens, rather than targets that could aid in wiping out all human life like tectonic hotspots, or nuclear launch facilities, or bioweapons research facilities.

'Instead, they're softening up our defences for the invasion force. They want the Earth under their domain, and humanity as some kind of slave labour. Probably.'

'But they're not the ones destroying Digimon,' Taichi said. 'You guys are. Or, Daisuke is.'

'Technically, yes,' Ishida said. 'But actually, no. We're just the gun. They pull the trigger when they infect Digimon with the virus. It drives them into a berserker state and causes them to lash out at just about anything they see, including their own partners, and as we're unable to create an antidote or vaccine against the virus to snap them out of their rage we're forced to destroy them, before too many people are hurt.'

'How many Digimon is that?' Hikari asked in a quiet whisper.

'Too many,' Ishida said back. 'Around sixty-thousand, roughly. That's ninety-seven percent of the world's population of Digimon. Japan is about the only country left with any kind of Digimon presence.'

Eleven jaws hit eleven chests as the DigiDestined tried, and failed, to process just what Ishida had told them. Each had expected there to be casualties from the fighting amongst their fellow chosen defenders of the Digital World, especially after learning it was a virus that deliberately targeted them, but nothing quite so massive as being told that Daisuke had near enough reduced the global population of Digimon down to just a shadow of what it had been.

Hikari struggled with the math for a moment, working out what that came out as on a daily basis, and almost fell out of her chair in shock when she figured out it meant Daisuke was killing an average of eighty or so Digimon a day, every day, assuming that he was the sole person in Captain Ishida's group capable of doing so. She got a foreboding feeling that this was _exactly_ the case.

_No wonder he looks so tired_, she thought. Being forced to kill eighty innocent Digimon a day would tax the limits of even a callous person, and Daisuke was not one for shying away from the plights of others.

'Well, maybe closer to fifty-seven thousand killed,' Ishida said after a beat. 'About five percent of those infected disappear through portals to some as yet unknown location, probably to serve as extra muscle or cannon fodder for the invasion force. They're all Ultimate level too, and partners of DigiDestined.'

'Aren't all Digimon on Earth partners to DigiDestined?' Takeru said.

'Yes,' Ishida said. 'And no.'

He paused and stared into the middle distance, thinking, then said, 'To be given a Digimon means that there's something special about you, in some way, that sets you apart from others beyond just seeing a Digimon at some point in your life. Usually it's a trait or virtue, like the crests, or being selfless enough that you're willing to put your life on the line.

'By our estimates, only 1 in 100,000 meets this criterion across the whole globe, on average. Some countries have a higher amount of DigiDestined in their populations, some have lower, but it works out to around 1 in 100,000.'

'So there's around sixty-six thousand DigiDestined around the world,' Taichi said. 'Well, there were sixty-six thousand, before the attacks started.'

'Yeah,' Ishida said with a grim nod. 'But around one in ten are what we might consider extra special, who best exemplify those traits and are, in turn, called upon more regularly to deal with threats against the Digital World from rogue Digimon. We call them DigiDestined as a result, to distinguish them from the rest.'

'What do you call them?' Taichi asked.

'GIs,' Ishida said. 'Or fodder, if our humour is feeling particularly dark. Officially they're referred to as chosen, standard, in the reports and documents we create, but nobody has the time to say chosen, standard, in casual conversation.'

'How kind of you,' Takeru said.

'We seem to think so,' Ishida said.

'Which one are we, then?' Taichi asked. 'GIs, or DigiDestined?'

'DigiDestined,' Ishida said. 'Probably the top percentage, actually, considering your group has faced down more threats and foes than any other team, which makes your lack of action over the past two years all the more surprising.'

'So this virus should be coming after our Digimon soon?' Koushiro said.

'We assume so,' Ishida said. 'Probably once all the other Digimon in Japan are dead or converted. The reason we think they only take partners of DigiDestined is because they tend to be much stronger than normal, even compared to members of the same species, and make better soldiers than partners of GIs. As you're all in the top percent, your partners are the strongest on the planet.'

'Strong enough that you'd need an army of Ultimate level Digimon to take them on?' Taichi said.

'Potentially,' Ishida said. 'But the modus operandi of the virus' creator indicates that they'll try to infect them rather than kill them, which is something we cannot allow.'

'Is that why you didn't want us to fight against that Andromon?' Takeru said. 'Because you were afraid of our Digimon getting infected?'

'In a sense,' Ishida said. 'Technically, the virus can strike anywhere it wants and infect a Digimon half a world away from the las victim, which means your partners can be off the battlefield and still succumb. Our primary concern is them being infected whilst in their Ultimate or Mega forms, which only happens when they're in combat against a powerful foe.

'A trait of the virus I haven't mentioned yet is something of a mixed blessing. It can cause a Digimon to evolve into the next level, presumably all the way up to Mega, but the process is much slower compared to the use of a Digivice and the build up of energy is what allows us to track them, and determine what level of threat Daisuke will be facing. That's what I meant yesterday when we detected a surge.'

'So why would you be worried about our Digimon being infected whilst they're in their evolved forms?' Takeru said. 'If this virus can just make them digivolve anyway?'

'Because it only works on GI Digimon,' Ishida said. 'DigiDestined Digimon are immune to it, either because of their increased strength or the stronger bond they have with their partners. Whatever it is, no infected partner of a DigiDestined has ever been seen digivolving past the state they were at when the infection took control.

'That's why you were told to avoid getting involved in this situation. Our forces aren't able to deal with Mega level Digimon just yet, and there's no chance we'd be able to take on your Digimon in their Mega forms.'

'So we're just supposed to sit back and do nothing?' Yamato said. 'After all we've done to protect the Digital World, you're going to tell us to let someone else handle it?'

'Yes,' Ishida said with a nod. 'But then, isn't that what you've been doing for these past two years? Nothing? Just continue as you have been, ignoring all those attacks and millions of casualties, and things will be fine. We've managed this far without your help.'

He let that jibe hang in the air for several long seconds, fixing each of the DigiDestined sat around the table with a steely glower that made each one shrink down in their chair. He was right and they knew it. They had failed in their duties as the Digital World's chosen defenders, allowing millions to suffer, and had it not been for Captain Ishida and his group then the death toll would have been even higher.

'What if we say no?' Taichi said. 'What if we keep trying to figure this out ourselves?'

'You're free to do so,' Ishida said. 'Short of arresting you, there's technically nothing I can do or say to prevent you from continuing your attempts to thwart this. I'm _advising_ you, based on our own intelligence and experiences, that it would be better for all parties involved you don't, however.

'I'd also advise you, should you choose to continue down this avenue, that if your Digimon become infected then we won't show any leniency against them. Daisuke _will_ destroy them if they pose a threat to innocent lives.'

'He wouldn't,' Hikari said, but even she could hear the lack of conviction in her own voice.

'He would,' Ishida said with a grim look. 'And if you still have doubts, ask yourself one question.

'Where's Veemon?'


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

For the second time that morning, nobody spoke.

They were dumbstruck by the chilling implications of Ishida's question, their minds rebelling against the idea that not only would Daisuke not hesitate to destroy their partners if they became infected, but that he had already killed his own Digimon at some point in the past two years. And yet, as Hikari looked at the saddened expression on Ishida's face, she knew it was the truth.

'You're lying,' Wormmon said from Ken's lap. 'Veemon isn't gone. I would have felt it.'

'He is,' Ishida said. 'I saw it myself.'

'You're lying,' Wormmon said again.

Ishida looked at the Digimon with a forlorn expression then turned away, towards a screen set into the wall, and produced a remote control from his pocket that he used to bring the monitor to life. A computer desktop appeared and Ishida navigated the various folders and menus until he came across a video file labelled with some amalgamation of letters and numbers that had to be a sort code. He highlighted the file then paused, glancing back at the DigiDestined and their partners, then sighed and opened the file.

Instantly the screen morphed into a view of a crater strewn battlefield as seen from somebody's point of view, Daisuke's presumably, and the slowly disintegrating body of a Digimon that was too far gone to properly identify. A pair of hands came into view, both of them covered in blocky armour gunmetal grey in colour, then the ground came up as Daisuke fell to his hands and knees from exhaustion, or maybe from the stress of finally taking the life of a Digimon.

Hikari could hear him breathing heavily in exertion as he shifted positions to sit on his haunches and stare up at a pale blue sky, before it dropped to show ExVeemon standing off to one side, the dragon's body marred by cuts and bruises and dirt from what was no doubt a hard fight, staring at Daisuke.

'_You okay, buddy?_' Daisuke said, his voice not yet robbed of its energy, and Hikari felt a twinge of sadness when she heard it. '_He didn't hurt you too badly, did he?_'

But ExVeemon remained silent, still staring at Daisuke as he struggled to his feet and stood before his partner. Then Daisuke's hand came up and patted the Digimon on the shoulder as he said, '_Are you feeling all right, Vee? Look, I know what we did wasn't right but we had to-_'

The rest was cut off by ExVeemon's fist coming up lightning fast to uppercut Daisuke and send him flying, the screen showing nothing but sky and then ground for several seconds, then a mad scramble to stand and adopt a defensive posture before the blue Digimon who still remained standing where he was, though now his mouth was turned down in a grimace.

'_Vee, what's gotten into you?_' Daisuke shouted. '_Why'd you hit me?_'

But still, the Digimon remained silent. Then he launched himself at Daisuke with a powerful flap of his wings, fist raised, and would have connected had Daisuke not dodged the attack by soaring up into the air with his thrusters. He span and focused on ExVeemon who adjusted his trajectory and aimed straight for his partner again, faster this time, and a blue mass filled the screen as the fist connected with Daisuke's head. Static washed over the feed and when it faded, a crack had appeared from the force of the blow.

Daisuke landed heavily on the ground and did nothing but look up at the sky, then recovered and span away as ExVeemon attempted to drive his foot through his stomach, missing by inches, and fired a flurry of lasers at him as he flew backwards.

'_Vee, what are you doing? I'm your friend!_' Daisuke shouted but it was for nought, ExVeemon chasing after him despite the laser barrage and was soon landing another solid punch that sent Daisuke tumbling to the ground.

He fell to his knees and was hit again by ExVeemon, sending him flying backwards into a pile of rubble, where he lay as the Digimon stalked closer. The feed titled slightly as Daisuke looked at his partner, then jerked back in shock or horror at seeing something that shouldn't have been there.

'_Fallen Angel!_' he shouted. '_Fallen Angel!_'

Then he flew up into the air, missing a direct hit from ExVeemon's laser blast, as a series of explosions and impacts engulfed the Digimon. The image panned quickly to a line of tracked vehicles rushing forwards, great dust clouds being thrown up behind them, as their cannons flashed and belched fire. ExVeemon roared in anger at the attack and turned to face them, moving for the closest of the vehicles and landing atop it where he grabbed the turret and tore it off in a screech of rending metal.

By this this point, Daisuke was flying down at great speeds but he was too far away to intervene in time, watching as ExVeemon grabbed one of the soldiers inside the vehicle before making us of his strength to rip him two, creating a visceral spray of blood, and was reaching for a second just as Daisuke reached him. There was a sickening crunch as another soldier's neck was snapped and Hikari flinched away on reflex, fighting back a growing urge to throw up, but she forced herself to keep watching.

Daisuke grabbed ExVeemon around the waist and sent them both rocketing up into the air, away from the soldiers, and Hikari heard him desperately pleading with his partner to fight off the infection he was apparently under the thrall of. It didn't work.

The next few minutes of footage was just Daisuke and ExVeemon battling each other, interspersed with moments of Daisuke trying in vain to reach his partner and sounding more and more desperate with each failed attempt, until the climatic move arrived. Daisuke screamed in rage, anger, sorrow and despair as he drew his fist back, the cannon attached to his arm aglow with energy, and drove it straight into ExVeemon's chest again and again. Every time he did, the cannon went off with a potent blast that bored right through the Digimon, and all the while Daisuke was screaming that pained scream.

But an instant before he could land that first blow, Hikari saw the expression on ExVeemon's face shift from quiet rage and murderous intent to confused bewilderment, as though he couldn't understand why a tortured sounding Daisuke was about to hit him with a mortal blow, almost as if he was no longer under the control of the virus.

He fell to the ground and sat there, staring down at the mass of holes in his chest, an expression of confusion and betrayal on his face, before he looked up at Daisuke.

'_Why, Daisuke?'_ ExVeemon whispered. '_What did I do?_'

'_Vee?_' Daisuke said once the realisation hit him.

In an instant he was by his partner's side, holding him, begging him to stay with him but the moment his hands touched the Digimon he exploded into data and was gone from the world. The last Daisuke saw of his partner was a sad, hurt expression that Hikari knew had been burned into Daisuke's mind.

The video came to an end there and Ishida turned the screen off, bowing his head solemnly as the rest of the room's occupants sat in complete silence, trying to digest what they had just seen. When it finally hit them, they all suddenly felt a great deal of remorse for how they had spoken and thought about Daisuke after their brief reunion yesterday, regretting all the harsh words and comments they had said about his character.

Hikari glanced at Takeru and saw he had lowered his gaze to the table, the malice he felt towards Daisuke ebbing away to almost nothing.

'This was taken from Daisuke's first combat outing,' Ishida said in a quiet tone. 'ExVeemon was the second Digimon he had to destroy as a result of the virus.'

Nobody said anything for a good, long while, fifteen minutes almost according to a nearby clock, each lost in their own little reverie of trying to image the pain Daisuke had to have felt after killing his partner like that, and at seeing him kill two soldiers in so brutal a manner. Ken in particular was close to breaking into tears as he petted Wormmon, trying to comfort the Digimon. Both of them shared a close bond with Daisuke and Veemon, what with being DNA partners and all, so it had to be hitting them the hardest out of everyone here.

'How could you let Daisuke keep fighting after that?' Ken asked with a harsh whisper. 'How could you continue sending him out to kill other Digimon?'

'Because we had no other choice,' Ishida said. 'We actually pulled him from frontline duty immediately after this fight, and were going to drum him out of service entirely, but we ran into a serious problem with the suit he wore when we tried to find another pilot.'

'It had better be a good one,' Ken said.

Ishida shrugged. 'I wouldn't really call it a good reason, but it was enough that we had to send Daisuke back out when a new infected Digimon appeared.'

'And that is?'

'The suit,' Ishida said. 'Or, more accurately, the software that runs it. We built it with components and materials from the Digital World and, as such, it's more akin to a new type of Digimon than it is a suit of power armour. In turn, this means it will only bond with one person and allow only them to pilot it. As Daisuke was the first to pilot the suit, it bonded to him.'

'How did you get Digital World materials?' Taichi asked.

'Gennai, actually,' Ishida said. 'He approached our unit shortly after the defeat of Ordinemon, offering the materials and knowledge necessary to create the suit.'

'Why would he do that?' Taichi asked. 'He helped choose us to be DigiDestined.'

'Apparently he found your after-action review unsatisfactory,' Ishida said. 'Infected Digimon running rampant, four of your friends missing in action for months, and yet you all seemed more concerned with trivial bullshit like pep rallies or going to saunas. Considering your more recent poor performance, I see he made the right decision.'

Taichi gritted his teeth at the comment but left it at that. Ishida was quite happy to continuously throw their failings back in their faces at every opportunity, so he would no doubt mention it again at some point.

'But, yeah, the software that runs the suit is like a Digimon,' Ishida continued. 'Which was a feature that only reared its head when we tried to find a new pilot for the suit. Every time someone other than Daisuke steps inside, the system refused to acknowledge them as anything other than an invalid user. So, we tried to work around the problem by building a second suit and installing fresh software inside it but that was when we found out about the suit's other unexpected feature.

'The OS beamed a copy of itself into the new suit and firmly established itself inside it, thwarting our every attempt to clear or reformat it, which meant Daisuke was the only able to pilot this suit as well. And, the original suit still held a version of the software which meant we couldn't do anything to it.

'We tried again when we rolled out the Mark II iteration of the suit but, no, the OS took up residence inside there as well. Same with the Mark III Daisuke's wearing now. It's the suit's version of Digivolving, I guess, and it's probably gonna happen when we finalise and build the Mark IV.'

'So Daisuke has no choice but to go out and fight?' Takeru said.

'Yes,' Ishida said. 'Believe me, we tried every trick imaginable to get that software to accept a new pilot. Everything failed. It is dead set on having Daisuke as its operator and nobody else.'

'Maybe Ken and I could look at the coding,' Koushiro offered. 'There might be something your people are missing that's not immediately obvious.'

'They're not missing anything,' Ishida said.

'They're not experts in Digimon matters like us,' Koushiro said.

'How would you know?' Ishida said dismissively. 'You've never met them. Fact of the matter is, I've got ten people as smart as you, Koushiro, who are all experts in coding and are all intimately familiar with Digimon. Most of them have partners themselves.

'You're exceptional, Koushiro. You're not unique.'

'Maybe,' Koushiro said. 'I'd still like to examine the suit's programming, if it's all the same to you.'

'It's not,' Ishida said. 'But I'll see what can be arranged.'

'Of course,' Koushiro said.

Ishida shrugged noncommittally and leant back against the wall, awaiting the next question, but nobody seemed ready to ask anything. So far, they'd been hit by two enormous bombshells that not only had Daisuke killed most of the world's population of Digimon, but the second one had been his own partner, and a rude revelation Gennai might be starting to lose faith in them if he had approached Captain Ishida with the means of making a suit that could enable a human to battle Digimon on equal footing. They didn't feel like they could handle anymore. Even so, Hikari opened her mouth to speak.

'Why Daisuke?' she asked. 'Why did you choose him to be the pilot?'

'That was a requirement from Gennai,' Ishida said. 'Ideally, we would have placed one of our troops in control of the suit but Gennai made us promise that a DigiDestined, preferably one of you twelve, was to be the first pilot. He never explained why, but I guess he wasn't quite ready to give up on you just yet.'

'But why Daisuke?' Hikari said again.

'He met the requirements we drew up,' Ishida said. 'Well, actually you all did but Daisuke had the added bonuses of one, being the only one not affected by MaloMyotismon's illusions, and two, led his team in uncovering the plot of Alphamon and Yggdrasil long before any of you became aware something was wrong. That, and he was ready for a break from all of you.'

'Why would he want a break from us?' Taichi asked. 'We're his friends.'

Ishida cocked an eyebrow at that statement but said, 'You'll have to ask Daisuke that. Assuming he'll speak with you.'

'And why wouldn't he?' Taichi said.

'I'll leave you to figure that one out.'

His cold glare returned for a brief moment then vanished as Takeru said, 'Was it because of me and Hikari getting together?'

'Somehow I doubt it,' Ishida said. 'Agreeing to join an anti-Digimon branch of the JSDF just to get away from a relationship seems a little bit drastic to me. Doesn't it?'

'I guess,' Takeru said, looking away.

'Well then,' Ishida said.

'Did you tell him to cut off all contact with us?' Hikari asked.

'No,' Ishida said, shaking his head. 'His only directive regarding communications was to keep his new role secret. Otherwise, he was free to send messages back and forth between you all.'

'Are you sure he didn't misunderstand you?' Hikari said.

'I'm certain,' Ishida said. 'I told him, exactly, that he could maintain whatever level of communications he desired between himself and the rest of you, but he was to never reveal his role as a member of our operations without express approval from myself or my superiors. That's exactly what I told him, and Veemon, when they first joined up with us.'

'So why did he all but stop talking to us?' Takeru asked.

'Ask him yourself,' Ishida said. 'Assuming he'll tell you, or speak with you.'

'Why wouldn't he speak to us?' Taichi asked again. He paused, then added, 'I bet you know.'

'I do,' Ishida said. 'But I'm not going to say. If you're smart enough, you'll be able to figure it out. If not… Well, I guess you weren't really good friends with him at all, were you?'

Ken growled at that implication and Ishida looked at him, then said, 'He might speak with some of you.'

'Would he tell me if I asked him?' Ken said.

'Maybe,' Ishida said, shrugging. 'It is Daisuke's choice, after all. All I told him to do was not mention us. That's it.'

'Why is that?' Koushiro said. 'Why didn't you want us to know about you? We've worked with a branch of the government responsible for Digimon before.'

'It is precisely because of your performance during that time that we didn't want you to know about us,' Ishida said. 'Doubly so when the effects of the virus became apparent. You'd stick your noses in and try to assume control of everything, claiming your status as DigiDestined made you uniquely qualified to combat this threat.

'More than that, the government wasn't about the hand over defence of the country to a bunch of teenagers in the face of such a grave threat. This isn't some stupid anime where a small band of noble heroes can overcome threats whole armies can't. This is the real world. People have died because of these Digimon attacks and what have the eleven of you done about it? Precisely nothing.

'Oh, sure, you might have tried corresponding with your counterparts near the attacks or visited the aftermath of a battle, but that's it. Even your esteemed leader, supposedly the best out of you all, would rather spend his time dating a girl than proactively stopping the attacks. Shit, until thirty minutes ago you didn't even know it was a virus that was behind it all.'

'I'm not dating Meiko!' Taichi shouted. 'We're friends, is all.'

'Could have fooled me,' Ishida said. 'The way you hold hands, the small kisses on the cheeks, the fancy restaurants. How soon before you become friends with benefits?'

Taichi growled and stood up, quickly enough that his chair clattered to the floor, glaring at Ishida as he clenched his hands into fists. If the soldier was impressed or intimidated by the display of anger, he didn't show it. He just calmly waited for Taichi to right his chair and sit back down, silently fuming at Ishida's comments. But then, they all were. All except Hikari, that is, who just lowered her gaze.

As annoyed as she was at how often Ishida mentioned their failings as DigiDestined, she couldn't help but feel her guilt and shame flare up every time he did. Over a million people had gotten badly hurt because of their inaction, died even, and what exactly had she done? Focused more on her own problems. Meanwhile, Daisuke was out there killing eighty or so Digimon a day, every day, protecting the people she should be. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes and she cuffed them away, not wanting anyone to see.

Ishida seemed to notice them, however, as his eyes opened fractionally wider in surprise when he panned across to her. Then came some faint nod that could just as easily have been an involuntary twitch.

'The best thing any of you can do right now is nothing,' he continued. 'Do as you have been doing. Look for jobs. Apply for college. Go on not-dates with friends. Just _don't_ interfere with our work.'

'Even if an army of Ultimate Digimon, three-thousand strong, attacked all at once?' Taichi muttered. 'Because I doubt Daisuke can handle them all by himself.'

'He can't,' Ishida said. 'But it wouldn't just be Daisuke and his suit responding to their incursion. The whole of the JSDF would be mobilised and equipped with weapons specially designed to cause damage to Ultimate level Digimon. Yes, Daisuke would be doing most of the heavy lifting and yes, he'll probably die in the process, but he is just one component in our response plans.'

'But we're not,' Takeru said.

'Correct,' Ishida said. 'We want you to play no part in repelling any attack by their invasion army.'

'You'd rather let Daisuke die than ask for our help?' Ken yelled, standing up in a rapid fashion and sending both Wormmon and his chair flying.

'Yes,' Ishida said. 'But only because to battle all those three-thousand Digimon, your partners would need to be in their Mega levels, which is probably exactly what the creator of this virus wants. Our forces can deal with Ultimate Digimon. They can't deal with Mega levels, let alone eight that are partners to the top DigiDestined in the world.

'I'd rather face a long but ultimately winnable fight than an impossible battle against demigods.'

'At a cost of Daisuke,' Ken said.

'And thousands of other troops,' Ishida said. 'But at least then we can live free, which we won't be able to do if the virus gets hold of your Digimon.'

His tone hadn't really risen all that much but Hikari could see from his body language that Ishida was getting annoyed at repeating himself over and over again about the fact that having their partners join the fray at full power would ultimately spell certain doom for humanity and the Digital World. The trouble was, nobody else seemed to be grasping just what it was Ishida was telling them. They were all too wound up at being told to sit this fight out, and at being insulted so glibly by the officer, that he could have told him the secret of eternal life and none of the would believe him.

And yet he was right. If their Digimon evolved all the way and joined the fight, they'd become corrupted like ExVeemon had and then Daisuke and the soldiers would turn their guns on them, doing their best to destroy everyone before they could hurt any innocent lives, except now they lacked the firepower to do so. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, would die in the process and the Earth would fall under the control of whoever it was that had created the virus in the first place.

The will to fight ebbed away from Hikari and she slumped down in her seat.

'I bet those troops are all volunteers, though,' Taichi said. 'You told us yourself, Daisuke's the only one that can pilot that suit so he _has_ to be out front and centre. They're not the same.'

'Daisuke volunteered for this duty,' Ishida said. 'Same as everyone else, and he keeps volunteering. Nobody forces him to don the suit. We want to pull him from duty because of the toll the fighting is having on his psyche, and I've _personally_ told him to stop, let the rest of the troops handle things, but he refused.

'We might have pressured him into continuing to wear the suit in the first few months, but only because we were still developing our anti-Digimon ordnance. When we had that sorted, we sat him down and said, in no uncertain terms, that he was free to retire and go back to civilian life. He told us no.'

'I'm sure he did,' Taichi said.

'What reason would I have to lie?' Ishida said. 'You saw Daisuke, what condition he's in. He's not eating properly, he's not sleeping. Most nights he has free are spent nursing a bottle of whiskey when he's not catatonic. The guy is on the verge of a total breakdown and that's not what I want piloting the most complex and powerful combat platform devised by anyone, ever. Sooner rather than later he'd going to snap and we're all going to suffer.'

'So just tell him he can't go out anymore,' Ken said as he returned his seat to normal and sat down in it. 'Tell him enough is enough.'

'Tried that,' Ishida said. 'Failed. Daisuke's stubborn, as you may well remember. He just donned the suit anyway and went out. Every time I tell him to stop, in fact.'

'Maybe we could speak with him,' Hikari offered, her nightmarish visions of Daisuke being killed by a tentacle flashing into her mind unbidden.

'You can try,' Ishida said. 'Doubt you'll manage it.'

'We're his friends,' Ken said quietly.

'So am I,' Ishida said.

'Not like us,' Taichi said.

Ishida looked at him with narrowed eyes, then said, 'You're more right than you know.'


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

There were no more questions after that.

Everyone had gotten their fill of bad news and despondent revelations and the meeting came to a slow stop, with people gradually getting up to leave the room in ones and twos shortly after. Ken was the first to go, holding Wormmon tight as he stood quietly with Miyako's arm around his, followed soon after by Iori and then everyone else until it was just Taichi, Takeru and Hikari left at the table, staring at Ishida as he stared back.

He was silent for a beat, then said, 'Hikari, if I could have a quick word with you before you go. Alone, preferably.'

'Whatever you have to say to her, you can say to us all,' Taichi said.

Ishida looked at him briefly then shrugged and turned back to the younger Yagami sibling.

'These dreams you're having,' he asked. 'You're certain they're the result of interference from the Dark Ocean?'

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'All the water I saw was pitch black, and Daisuke's blood was the exact same. Black, and tasting of saltwater.'

'Did you see any of the creatures from the last time you visited the Dark Ocean's dimension?' Ishida asked.

'No,' Hikari said with a shake of her head. 'Just Daisuke and that other being, the one with the tentacles.'

'Okay,' Ishida said. 'That's all I wanted to know.'

'That's it?' Takeru said. 'That's what you wanted to ask her? If it was the Dark Ocean causing those nightmares?'

'Yes,' Ishida said. 'Aren't you glad you stuck around that bit longer to find out?'

He rolled his eyes and moved away from the wall, towards the door, and held it open whilst beckoning the last three DigiDestined to leave the room.

'A car will be waiting outside to take you home,' he said. 'And I know there's going to be this massive discussion back at your apartment over whether you should stand down or not, and I think I can guess what the outcome is going to be, but please, listen to us. We know what we're doing, believe it or not. Let us handle this threat.

'And Hikari, if you can, please let us know of any changes to the dreams you have. Even the smallest detail.'

'Of course,' she said. A pause as something dawned on her, then, 'I actually didn't have any dreams last night, Dark Ocean affected or otherwise. I just slept through the night.'

'You did?' Ishida said, taken aback by this information. 'Nothing at all?'

'No,' Hikari said. 'Nothing. I just seemed to blink and it was morning.'

'Why didn't you say anything?' Takeru said.

'I didn't think anything about it,' Hikari said. 'I guess I was too worried about Daisuke to realise it.'

She turned to Ishida, thinking he might be relieved to hear this, except his expression was anything but. In fact, he seemed more worried than before at learning this new fact and it set her on edge, even if she didn't know why he was reacting like this.

'Is that bad?' Hikari said.

'Probably,' Ishida said. 'I didn't like how these dreams occurred only after we made landfall in Japan, not before, and drove you to hold this reunion of the DigiDestined that Daisuke _had_ to attend, and only a few days before the fighting reached Odaiba, so I don't like the fact they stopped abruptly after you learned the truth. It gives me the impression that the Dark Ocean wanted contact to be made between you and Daisuke.'

'Why would it want to do that?' Taichi asked. 'Shouldn't the Dark Ocean be trying to keep our groups as far apart as possible?'

'It should,' Ishida said. 'From a strategic viewpoint, having the eleven of you motivated more than ever to combat this threat is a bad idea.'

'So you're saying having us working alongside you is actually a good thing?' Takeru said with a small smirk.

'I'm saying a broke ass clock is right two times a day,' Ishida said. 'You were slow to respond to Yggdrasil's plans, but you still stopped them, and you've overcome other threats before. The same could happen here again, because you're no doubt going to be conducting your own investigation into this despite me asking you not to.'

'We have every right to look into this,' Taichi said.

'Of that, I have no doubt,' Ishida said. 'The Digital World did choose you, after all, to try and protect it. And again, I must stress that Daisuke won't hold anything back should your partners become infected, at any stage. He will kill them.'

'Yeah, we know,' Takeru said as he held Patomon close.

'I'd appreciate it if you kept us appraised of any developments you make,' Ishida said. 'Any at all.'

'After the way you spoke to us today?' Taichi spat. 'Why should we?'

'Because we're on the same team, believe it or not,' Ishida said, shrugging. 'And because we can deal with any threats without fear of having our fighters being turned to the dark side. Right now, you know just about as much as we do. If you want, I can have my people keep you appraised of any developments we make but I'd want the same in return. Nobody wins if one side learns something the other could make good use of and keeps it to themselves.'

'Like you've been doing these past two years?' Takeru said acidly. 'Who knows what we could have learned if you'd brought us in from the start.'

'And you could have come to the government at any point yourselves,' Ishida said. 'Offered your services, your expertise, but no. None of that. You stayed away and busied yourselves with mundane crap whilst others fought and died against those Digimon. What could we have accomplished with that kind of work ethic?'

He let that hang in the air, both a rhetoric question and one last jibe, before ushering them out with a glare that the three DigiDestined gladly followed. The weather outside hadn't let up and they scurried from the hangar into the waiting car where another soldier in fatigues drove off without a word. They were back home in just under an hour and joined everyone else in cramming into the living space of the Yagami apartment for the prophesised discussion between all eleven members about how involved they were going to be in the fight against the infected Digimon, and part of Hikari was astounded at how accurately Ishida had predicted their actions.

She saw Ken was on his phone as she walked in, a tense look on his face, no doubt trying incessantly to contact Daisuke and try and talk to him. As if on autopilot, Hikari brought out her phone and composed a text message to their wayward member, expressing her condolences over losing Veemon like he had, and asked if he could come talk to them as soon as possible. The phone trilled to let her know the message had been sent, but there was no way of knowing if or when Daisuke might have read it. Technology hadn't quite gotten there yet.

'He's not answering,' Ken said quietly as he flipped his phone shut. 'It just keeps going to voicemail.'

'He'll call,' Miyako said. 'Or message us. He has to.'

'He didn't for the past two years,' Takeru said.

'Things are different now,' Miyako said, shooting a glare at the blonde teen. 'We know what he's doing, and he knows that too. He'll call.'

Ken looked down at his phone despondently, as if expecting it to start ringing right then and there, but it remained silent in his hand and he eventually tucked it away in his pocket.

'What he's been doing is killing Digimon,' Taichi said. 'And lying to us.'

'To our faces,' Yamato added. 'I don't care if that soldier told him to keep it a secret. He should have come out and told us!'

'No, they should have told us from the beginning,' Takeru said. 'We're DigiDestined, after all. Protecting the world against rampant Digimon is our job.'

'Because we've done such a great job of that recently!' Ken yelled, suddenly jumping to his feet in a move that surprised everyone, as did the tone of his voice. 'Captain Ishida was right about that. For two years, we haven't done anything remotely useful against the Digimon attacks.'

'Don't tell me you're agreeing with him,' Takeru said with more than a hint of disbelief in his own voice.

'I'm stating the facts,' Ken said. 'Up until this morning, we thought the attacks were being made by rogue Digimon. So you tell me, Takeru, if we're really living up to the role of DigiDestined. Because I don't think we are.'

He dumped himself back down on the sofa, apparently spent, and cradled his head as Takeru said, 'So we're supposed to just give up? Is that it?'

'Give up,' Ken said. 'Carry on as we have. However you want to say it, but yeah.'

'We can't give up,' Taichi said. 'We won't. Now that we know what's causing the attacks, and how to track them, we can finally make some real progress. Maybe even develop a counter to the virus.

Taichi smacked a fist into his palm, the epitome of confidence, then turned to Koushiro.

'We could make a counter to the virus,' he said. 'Couldn't we?'

'I'd need to look over whatever data Ishida's group has to be certain,' Koushiro said after a moment's consideration. 'But I have my doubts. The virus contains elements from Meicoomon's infection and we were never able to develop a counter to that. History could well repeat itself.'

'I have every faith in you, Koushiro,' Mimi said as she wrapped her arms around him from behind. 'I don't care what Captain Ishida might say. You're the best there is at this.'

Koushiro's previously unfazed demeanour rapidly came undone at the intimate contact Mimi was giving him, a deep red blush erupting on his cheeks, and he stammered out some kind of affirmation he would come up with a suitable counter to the virus sweeping the world that earned him a smile and quick kiss on the cheek from Mimi as she stood.

'Great,' Taichi said. 'It'd be nice to show that guy up.'

'That shouldn't be our sole priority in developing a cure,' Iori said. 'We should be focusing on figuring out ways to assist Captain Ishida and Daisuke as best we can, even ones where we don't fight alongside them.'

'We're not sitting this fight out,' Taichi said.

'You might not be,' Iori said as he reached down to pet Armadillomon on the head. 'But I couldn't stand the idea of my partner being used as a weapon to hurt innocent people, even if he was being controlled by somebody else. Though I guess it's really your decision on if you fight or not, isn't it?'

'Iori, if you don't want me to fight, I won't,' Armadillomon said. 'We're a team, partner.'

The duo exchanged grins at that but gave Taichi firm looks that signalled they weren't going to stand and fight against the infected Digimon if they could help it, as did Ken and Wormmon and Miyako and Hawkmon. The leader of the DigiDestined gave a short, resigned sigh but nodded in understanding at their decision to avoid the fight, though he was a little more perplexed when both Sora and Joe said they weren't going to fight, either.

'Because of what we stand to lose,' Sora said when pressed. 'You just know that virus will infect our Digimon the moment they Digivolve to Mega, and Captain Ishida was adamant his forces couldn't hope to face off against them. But if we stay out of the fight, there's a good chance we can avoid losing anyone.'

'Except Daisuke,' Taichi said quietly. 'Ishida was adamant he'd probably die before too long when all those corrupted Digimon finally attack. Could you really live with yourself afterwards if you let Daisuke die just so you could stay with Biyomon?'

Sora didn't answer him, looking away at the remark, but Joe spoke up in her stead to say, 'Daisuke isn't being forced to fight. He's volunteering, probably because he doesn't want anyone else to go through the trauma of losing their partners like he did, and we shouldn't waste the gift he's trying to give us.'

'So that's a yes,' Taichi said.

'It's not a decision I'm making lightly,' Joe said. 'Of course I'd hate myself if Daisuke gave his life so I wouldn't lose Gomamon, and I would be more than happy to fight alongside him if I could, but that's not an option here. If we fight, we risk losing our partners to the virus and seeing them used to dominate the world. If we don't, the only one we risk losing is Daisuke but in exchange, we get a greater chance at peace.'

He finished and leaned back, glancing out the rain spattered window at the world beyond, somewhere in which Daisuke was likely fighting against the infected partners of other DigiDestined that had succumbed to the virus. If not, then he would be back at Captain Ishida's base to try and rest and recuperate, though if the officer's words were to be believed sleep for Daisuke would be an elusive thing. For a moment, Hikari tried to imagine what kind of nightmares he might be suffering but knew she couldn't even come close to figuring it out.

She shifted from Joe to the ones who weren't choosing to sit this fight out. Of course, her brother and Yamato were in it until the end, as was Takeru, but so were Koushiro and Mimi.

'If I can create some kind of anti-virus,' Koushiro began. 'then we could all fight alongside Daisuke without worrying about our partners being infected, and ensure he survives.'

'Assuming we can,' Ken muttered darkly. 'You said it yourself, Meicoomon's infection is part of the virus and you weren't able to counter that.'

'No, but we're not dealing with just Meicoomon's data this time,' Koushiro said. 'The creator of the virus will have had to modify it to make it compatible with the coding for the Dark Spirals. Perhaps there's a vulnerability now we can exploit, something Captain Ishida's programmers missed.'

'A big if,' Ken said.

'Well at least he's trying to think of solutions,' Mimi said dismissively. 'All you're doing is just sitting there, acting like it's all a done deal.'

'I am not,' Ken said loudly, throwing a glare Mimi's way the likes of which hadn't been seen since his days as the Digimon Emperor. 'If you think I'm going to just sit back and let Daisuke die, you're wrong. He's my best friend and I'm not going to abandon him.'

'Well you should act like it, then,' Mimi said.

Ken could only growl at her and his hands clenched into fists, looking ready to pounce at the older DigiDestined, who returned his stare with a glower of her own. Neither moved or made any attempt to be the first to back down, and a tense atmosphere filled the apartment for several long minutes. Eventually they both turned away from one another and all eyes drifted to Hikari as she rested on the kitchen counter, eating a belated breakfast after rushing out this morning.

She was the only one not to speak up on which side of the issue she was behind. If this were a vote, hers would be the decider. They had five members electing to stay off the front lines, keep their partners away from infection, and five choosing to stick to their duties as DigiDestined and keep on fighting, regardless of the consequences. Taichi and Takeru were both looking at her expectantly, as if they were certain she'd side with them on the issue, but their faces both fell in astonishment when she finally spoke.

'I'm not going to fight,' Hikari said. 'At all.'

'How come?'

The question came not from Taichi or Takeru, who undoubtedly were thinking the exact same thing, but from Gatomon as she lay on the counter beside her partner, looking up at Hikari with blue eyes filled with confusion.

'Because Captain Ishida was right,' Hikari said after a long moment. 'About everything. The Digital World chose us to protect it and the Earth from any threats and we haven't. Millions of people have suffered because we didn't push ourselves to investigate these attacks as well as we could have, choosing to focus on our own problems even as innocent people died. It's been two years and we know nothing. We did _nothing_.

'All of us should have dropped everything when we realised these attacks weren't stopping. We should have gone to the government and offered our help. What did we do instead? Everything but. We went to school. We got jobs. We got into relationships. We did everything except what we were chosen to do. We're failures.'

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and Hikari let them fall as she spoke, staring at a fixed point in the middle of everyone and clutching a lukewarm cup of tea she had already forgotten about. All the negative emotions that had been welling up in her ever since seeing Daisuke in his armour, and learning all those horrid truths from Ishida, boiled over and spilled out.

'We're failures,' she repeated. 'And the whole world is suffering because of it. The only one of us who still deserves to be called DigiDestined is Daisuke. We don't deserve to label ourselves as them, and we don't deserve to think we're the only ones that can save the world from the Dark Ocean. We're failures and we should be ashamed of ourselves.'

She stopped and the room fell into an abrupt, heavy silence at that, each one of them dwelling on Hikari's words even as she continued to silently weep, imagining the anguish Daisuke had to feel every time he destroyed yet another innocent Digimon turned into a vicious killing machine by the virus, the nightmares that had to haunt whatever sleep he managed to steal away at night, and the countless millions who had lost their homes, livelihoods and loved ones, all because she had played the role of everyday teenager rather the chosen saviour of the world.

All of a sudden her cup was flying across the kitchen to smash into the wall as she buried her head in her hands and began crying in earnest, unable to hold anything back any more. Seconds later, she felt Takeru's hand on her shoulder as he said her name softly, trying to soothe her, but she jerked his hand away as though repulsed by his touch. He was just as much to blame as she was, showing a distinct lack of concern for much of the two years and convincing her, in turn, it was okay to be just as unconcerned with the attacks.

For the briefest of moments Hikari felt nothing but pure, unbridled hatred for her boyfriend as he took a step away, taken aback by her violent reaction to his attempt to calm her, and then it was gone in an instant.

'Hikari…' he whispered.

'Don't,' she said quietly back. 'Just… Just don't, Takeru. Not now.'

She stood and pushed past him, ignoring the staring looks of everyone else, and made for the sanctity of her room where she collapsed onto the bed and remained there until the tears ceased to flow, her whole body numb, and lay there for the best part of an hour with nothing but the ceiling to fill her vision. When Hikari finally deigned to move she did so only to pull out her phone and check the time, seeing a long list of missed calls and messages from Takeru. All of them were apologies for whatever it was that he had done, and requests for her to call him back as soon as she felt better.

Beyond that, there was nothing else. Nothing from Taichi or the others, from her parents, or from Daisuke. She stared at the screen for a long while, several minutes at least, then brought up his number and pressed the green call button. As expected, it went to voicemail after ringing for a few seconds, so she left a message that she hoped he'd listen to.

'Daisuke, I'm sorry,' Hikari said. 'I'm so, so sorry for everything that's happened to you because of us. We should have gotten more involved with these attacks, gone to the government, anything but what we did. I'm sorry. You're the only one of us who deserves to be called DigiDestined anymore. I mean that.

'If there's anything we can do to help, if there's anything _I_ can do to help, to put things right, tell me. Please. I want to make up for everything I didn't do. Just… Just call us, okay? Or call Ken. He really needs to hear from you. Please, Daisuke. I'm sorry.'


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

The next few days passed by normally enough with each of the DigiDestined going about their daily lives just as they had prior to meeting with Captain Ishida, heading off to school or work in the mornings before coming home to relax in front of the television as evening closed in, though now they did it with the knowledge that Daisuke was out there, fighting, just as he had been for the past two years with minimal respite from it all. Regardless of whatever animosity they might have felt towards him for lying to them all, each carried some measure of guilt that gnawed away at them as they went about their business.

For Hikari, it was no small amount eating away at her during every waking moment, and during her sleep too. Images of a gaunt and haggard Daisuke stumbling about in a ruined city, weakly fending off a plethora of shadowy creatures, filled her head at night and she couldn't be certain they were the work of the Dark Ocean anymore. There was no black seawater anywhere, and neither did Daisuke bleed it when the creatures struck him with their fists. On the contrary, his blood was a vibrant red that stood out clearly against the dusty rubble surrounding the teen as he fought, without his suit, to defend the innocent people of the world whilst the other DigiDestined looked on, apathetic.

She would cry out to them to help, to stand with Daisuke, but none made any move to do anything that might aid their friend even as he was being killed before their very eyes. They would turn away one by one, vanishing into the gloom, until all that remained were her and Takeru. He would take hold of her hand, or wrap an arm around her shoulders, and steer her away from the dying Daisuke with a smile on his face even as she screamed at him to stop.

Then she would awaken in the early hours of the morning, bedding strewn about the room, filled with self-loathing at her inaction.

Daisuke not responding to her voicemail, or any of the other communiques sent by the rest of the DigiDestined, served only to worsen her mood and bring up yet more worries. After all, Captain Ishida had stated the only reason Daisuke agreed to pilot the suit was to get away from them all. What could they have done to him to warrant such a decision? Nothing immediately sprang to mind, nothing that made sufficient sense at least, which didn't help matters in the slightest.

'You're thinking about him again,' Gatomon said.

'Huh?' Hikari said, taking a moment to remember she was sat in the living room of her apartment, allegedly watching television.

'Daisuke,' Gatomon said. 'You're thinking about him.'

Her partner was curled up on the back of the sofa like a normal housecat would, just a few feet from Hikari, gazing listlessly at the screen as it displayed an American sitcom of some kind that she herself had been trying to watch. Only, her mind had wandered yet again to the situation surrounding Daisuke and lost all track of the world around her. One minute, it had been a show about the mishaps surrounding a group of friends living in New York. Now, it was about a TV host with an obsession for power tools and grunting. Had she really spaced out for that long?

'Is it that obvious?' she said, forcing herself to smile and laugh in an attempt to play the situation off as humorous. 'Don't tell Takeru. He might get jealous.'

'That's not what you should be worrying about,' Gatomon said. 'You should be worried about what it's making you feel.'

'Why?' Hikari asked.

'Because the Dark Ocean's involved,' Gatomon said. She sat up and turned away from the television to look her partner in the eye, adding, 'The last time it came after you, it preyed upon the fear you weren't as strong as Taichi and used it to draw you in. Now it's come back and you're feeling all this guilt over Daisuke and about not being worthy enough of the title of DigiDestined. If you're not careful, it could snatch you up again.'

For a moment, Hikari said nothing. It had never occurred to her that the Dark Ocean could be trying to kidnap her a second time, but thinking about it now made perfect sense. The dark denizens that called that realm home had wanted to use her for their own disgusting purposes, and there was no assurance they hadn't entirely abandoned the idea even after all this time. She shivered, remembering the clammy feel of their touch as they tried to take her, and gave thanks that Takeru had managed to rescue her in time.

'It's hard not to,' Hikari finally said. 'All he's been through because of us…'

She trailed off and let her eyes drift to the television screen, hoping there might be come solace to be found there, but all she saw was the main character befalling some kind of injury and trying to play it off as a carefully rehearsed act.

'You have to try,' Gatomon said. 'We might not be able to rescue you this time, not if the Dark Ocean is where that virus came from. We could end up being infected.'

'I know,' Hikari said quietly. 'I'll try.'

She tried to flash a smile at Gatomon but it felt too forced, too fake, so she dropped it quickly enough. Before, it had only taken admitting to herself she was strong enough to not need Taichi protecting her to break the Dark Ocean's hold and escape. This time, she had no such quick fix. She was constantly worrying over Daisuke, and the only way to stop that was to stop caring about him as a person entirely. Either that, or figure out some way to make up for all the hardships she had made him endure.

Gatomon nodded but looked unconvinced at Hikari's conviction, or lack thereof, and crawled into her lap to say, 'You have to be strong, Hikari. You can't let the Dark Ocean take you.'

'I know,' Hikari said again, but the determination was still absent from her voice.

Flashes of those shadowy creatures appeared before her eyes and the feeling of their slimy flesh on her skin coursed across her body, and she shivered violently. Then, as if sensing she needed a distraction, her phone began trilling away as somebody called her.

Thankful, Hikari pulled it out but frowned upon seeing an unknown number on the screen. Even so, she flipped the phone open and pressed answer, cupping it to her ear.

'Hello?' she said.

'_Hikari_,' the disembodied voice said and in an instant, she knew who it was. '_This is Captain Ishida. I was hoping to speak with you some more regarding the Dark Ocean._'

The elation Hikari had felt at having her attention diverted from that place crumbled in the blink of an eye and her shoulders sagged down in response, but she said, 'Of course, captain. What did you want to know?'

'_I'd prefer if we spoke face to face_,' Ishida said. '_I've reached out to Ken as well, given his connection to the realm, and he's agreed to come. A car can be by to pick you up within fifteen minutes if you agree.'_

'It's a long way to ask a few questions,' Hikari said, recalling the hour-long journey she had undertook earlier in the week just to get to the base.

'_I find meeting face to face with people offers better results_,' Ishida said. '_Besides, all my notes are here should I need to refer to them, or if you have any follow up questions surrounding these Digimon, and Daisuke_.'

There were probably other reasons why he wanted the meeting to be in person but he didn't offer them up, awaiting Hikari's answer instead as she stared morosely at the television and comedic antics it displayed. With a short, soft sigh she agreed and Ishida promised the car would be there inside of fifteen minutes, which it was, and Hikari spent much of the drive thinking over what extra questions she might ask Ishida and what, in turn, he might ask of her.

Along the way, she spotted columns of smoke rising up from beyond the horizon that hadn't been there before. Her first, and only, thought was that the smoke was from another attack Daisuke was dealing with, a fact that seemed to be true given the subtle glances her driver gave towards the smoke. Undoubtedly friends of his were participating in the attack as well, and he likely feared for their safety.

As before, they pulled into the tarmac lot and passed by the turreted vehicles which had been moved around since last Hikari saw them, their armour sporting fresh dents and tally marks, and she asked the driver about them.

'Lives lost,' the soldier said. 'Ours and theirs.'

'Theirs?' Hikari said.

'Yeah,' the soldier said. 'The infected Digimon. They're innocent parties in this, after all. Gotta pay respects somehow.'

He pulled up to the middle hangar before Hikari could ask anything else and she got out, holding Gatomon close to her chest, and headed for the waiting door where another soldier in fatigues stood waiting. Unlike before, he glanced at her then opened the door and stood to one side, permitting her entry without first determining her identity. She ducked her head in thanks and stepped inside the building.

There were more troops present than before, many of them wearing body armour that was covered in dirt and ash, clustering around the kitchen area at the back and talking lowly amongst themselves. A lot of them seemed worn down, as though they had just come back from battle and were finally decompressing from the stress, and the tally marks sprang into Hikari's mind.

_Ours and theirs_, she thought sombrely. _Yet more people suffering because of us._

One of the soldiers saw her out of the corner of his eye and made some comment to those around him, who in turn diverted their attention from whatever conversations they were having to stare at the new arrival until all of them, maybe thirty or forty troops in total, were just looking her way with neutral expressions.

Unsure of what to do, and acutely aware of the trouble she had caused these men, Hikari bowed and said, 'Thank you, and sorry,' before slipping into the same conference room as before to find Ishida and Ken were already present, as was Miyako.

'Thank you for coming,' Ishida said, gesturing to an empty seat near the head of the table where an urn of coffee was waiting. 'This shouldn't take long.'

'Is Daisuke here?' Hikari asked as she sat, forgoing the drinks for the moment.

'No,' Ishida said. 'He's dealing with another attack at the moment. You might have seen the smoke on the way in.'

'I did,' Hikari said, nodding her head. 'Is it a bad fight?'

'Nothing he can't handle,' Ishida said with a small shrug. 'Plus he's got a company of soldiers backing him up. Damages will be kept to a minimum.'

Hikari could only nod at that and finally reached for the urn, pouring herself a cup of black coffee given the lack of alternatives. There was no sugar, or milk, to make it any less bitter so she endured it as best she could.

'What did you want to know about the Dark Ocean?' Ken said as she did.

'Whatever you can tell us, I guess,' Ishida said. 'Daisuke gave us a brief rundown on what he knew, based on what he gleaned from listening to you, but that's a limited dataset to rely on if we're to be making plans to repel an invasion from there.'

'Then we should start with the obvious and say it's dark,' Ken said. 'Physically, and emotionally. Everything these is in shades of grey, even bright light, and just being there saps your strength. It makes you feel cold and alone. And angry.'

His hands clenched into fists at the memory of his first time there, guided by Yukio Oikawa following the death of his older brother Sam, and how it gave birth to his Digimon Emperor persona.

'Or helpless,' Hikari added. 'It feeds on your negative emotions and amplifies them. When I went, I feared I wasn't as strong as Taichi and that I'd always need his help to protect myself.'

'But you overcame this,' Ishida said. 'Right?'

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'If you can overcome your negative feelings there, the Dark Ocean's hold on you breaks. Or, it weakens enough so you can escape.'

'And getting there?' Ishida said. 'Daisuke mentioned that you were able to open a portal there during the attacks by Daemon and his group.'

'Yeah,' Ken said. 'It… It was tough to do.'

'Could you do it again if needed?' Ishida said. 'I know that's a big ask, but having a direct link to the Dark Ocean would allow us to either conduct initial recon ahead of their invasion or implement a pre-emptive strike against whoever or whatever resides there now.'

'I don't know,' was Ken's quiet reply. 'It took a lot of effort to open it the first time.'

Ishida nodded. 'Understood. I'd appreciate it if you could try for us, at least once, though if you're unable to do so I won't push. Besides, as I understand it the three of you were able to cross over from the Digital World once, correct? Through some kind of distortion?'

'Just once,' Miyako said. 'And only because of BlackWarGreymon's presence, and all these nearby control spires weakening the barriers between the worlds. I don't think we could replicate that method either.'

'Great,' Ishida said without an ounce of enthusiasm in his voice. 'Any other methods you might be able to think of?'

'No,' Ken said after a long minute, thinking back on what little he could remember from his time as the Digimon Emperor, and to the few times he managed to travel into the Dark Ocean, drawing a blank. 'Without a portal or a distortion, the only way to get to the Dark Ocean is for it to draw you there, and it only calls those with darkness in their hearts.'

Ishida could only nod in response to this, his face an otherwise neutral mask, but Hikari saw the slight droop of his shoulders at being told, in no uncertain terms, they couldn't come up with a definitive means of travelling between the real world and the Dark Ocean as easily as they might the Digital World. How badly might this affect their chances of victory if they weren't able to undertake the reconnaissance Ishida wanted, or the pre-emptive strike against whatever forces were being gathered in the Dark Ocean?

She didn't want to know the answer to that question, fearing nothing good, and banished the thought as best she could as Ishida moved onto his next set of questions.

'Describe the creatures that live there,' he said. 'Basic physiology, power levels, motivations. Anything.'

'They look like shadows,' Hikari said. 'Humanoid, but without anything like skin or fur or armour. They're just shadows, and with two red eyes that never blink, though when I first saw them they made themselves look like Divermon.'

'They can transform?' Ishida said.

'A little,' Hikari said, shrugging. 'I don't know if it means they can copy the abilities of those Digimon or not. We never quite got that far.'

'So they were hostile to you.'

'No,' Hikari said after a pause. 'Not… exactly.'

She paused again, then said, 'They dragged me to the Dark Ocean so I could help free them from Ken's rule, back when he was the Digimon Emperor. Only, they wanted to use me to raise an army to fight against him rather than fight on their behalf.'

'How-' Ishida began, only for Gatomon to cut him off with, 'They wanted to mate with her, so she could give birth to even more of them.'

'Oh,' Ishida said, blinking in surprise and perhaps a little shock and disgust at the idea. After all, Hikari had only been eleven at the time. 'I'm surprised you didn't take them up on their offer.'

His joke might have worked better with the soldiers under his command, or people with a decidedly dark sense of humour, but to the three teenagers sitting at the table and their partners it fell flat and all gave him stern looks to varying degrees, each of which he shrugged off.

'I told them no and Angewomon drove them off before they could do anything else,' Hikari continued at Ishida's prompting. 'So they retreated back into the water, saying they'd return to their old god, and wait.'

'For what?' Ishida said.

'I don't know,' Hikari said. 'Another chance to capture me, probably, but it's been almost five years now and they haven't-'

She stopped abruptly upon remembering where it was the virus was supposed to have come from and recalled that some people could wait months, even years, before springing their plans into action, and a cold feeling swept through Hikari's body as she realised that the creatures of the Dark Ocean could well still want her for their disgusting purposes. Might everything up until now been an adjustment in their plans, a way of ensuring that nobody could stand against them should they try to take her a second time, or when they finally unleashed their army upon the world?

'You don't think they're still after you,' Miyako said in a hushed whisper. 'Do you?'

'I don't know,' Hikari whispered back. 'I hope not.'

'They probably are,' Ishida said. 'Three-thousand Digimon might seem like a big number, but it pales in comparison to the total number of soldiers across the globe ready to stand against them should they invade, so they're going to need a way of producing troops of their own to replace combat losses. If what you said is right, I'm surprised they haven't come for you yet.'

'If you're trying to make me feel better, you're not doing a very good job of it,' Hikari said dryly.

'I'm simply stating the obvious,' Ishida said. 'If they really can create a new army from you, why have they not abducted you before now? We've all but perfected our equipment for taking on infected Digimon, even at Ultimate level. That army won't last very long without reinforcements.'

He leant back and pursed his lips together, thinking, then said, 'Unless they have another role for you to play, before then. One that's more important than birthing unspeakable horrors.'

Hikari felt the colour drain from her face at that suggestion. More important than creating an invasion force numerous enough to subjugate the Earth?

'Like what?' she said.

'If I knew, I'd tell you,' Ishida said. 'Simply put, we don't know all that much about the enemy's intentions or how they're planning to go about it. Best case scenario, they've forgotten all about you and that dream you had was some unforeseen consequence resulting from a tangential link left over from the last time the Dark Ocean became active.'

He didn't need to state what the worst-case scenario could be, and Hikari forced herself to suppress a shiver as it ran down her spine. Across from her, Ken and Miyako seemed just as despondent at the speculations Ishida was voicing aloud who seemed more frustrated than anything else. It was a feeling Hikari knew well, born from not knowing a vital piece of information that could help turn the tide of battle.

How often had she and the others worked themselves up into states agonising over just who the Digimon Emperor was, or what the ultimate goals of Arukenimon and Mummymon had been, and more recently with the Digimon attacks that had swept the globe. Once that single nugget of information found its way to them, everything else seemed to make sense and they were able to form effective battle plans that won the day in their favour. She just hoped such a thing would occur this time.

'Is there anything that could be done to keep Hikari safe from the Dark Ocean if it comes for her?' Miyako asked, getting a shake of the head from Ishida.

'Nothing at all,' he said, looking at the girl in question. 'Last time, it latched onto her negative emotions and dragged her into its world. I'd assume the process this time would be much the same. So, provided there aren't any significant negative emotions, we should be fine.

'But I get the feeling that's not the case. Is it?'

Hikari didn't answer at first, looking away from them all to focus on a random spot on the floor, before finally saying, 'Daisuke. I just feel so guilty for everything we've put him through because of our inaction. He shouldn't have had to go through all that.'

'Is there anything that could be done to alleviate these feelings?' Ishida asked. 'Anything at all?'

'I don't know,' Hikari said as she continued to stare at the floor. 'Apologising to him might be a start, even if he rejects it. And finding some way to make up for everything. To him, to the people who lost everything during the attacks, and the soldiers that put their lives on the line in our place.'

Ishida nodded. 'If you think that'll help.'

She returned her gaze to him and was mildly surprised to see that the expression on his face had softened considerably compared to the first time they had met. Gone was the mild disdain and contempt, replaced by something almost approaching approval, as if his opinion of her was improving.

'It couldn't hurt,' Hikari said.

Ishida nodded again and leant back against the wall, thinking, then raised his gaze to the room's ceiling as a distant PA system came to life, announcing the encroaching arrival of something called Sierra-1, which Hikari immediately took to mean Daisuke.

'He's back earlier than I expected,' Ishida said once the announcement finished, moving to stand and head for the door.

'Can we see him?' Hikari asked.

'Certainly,' Ishida said, pausing at the door with one hand on the handle, ready to open it. 'Hard to offer an apology otherwise. Just, a word of warning before we go. These past few days have been particularly busy with Digimon attacks, and Daisuke's getting by on maybe five cumulative hours of sleep since you last saw him. He may not be in a coherent enough state to talk.'


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The first sign of Daisuke was a faint trail of smoke approaching from the horizon that grew steadily thicker with each passing second until a solid form could be discerned at the head of it, and soon enough that evolved into a vaguely humanoid shape covered in dark metal. Thirty seconds after that, Hikari was able to recognise it as the suit of armour Daisuke had worn during his fight with the Andromon. Like before, she could spot no end of dents and scratches and scorch marks indicative of a heavy fight.

Ishida motioned for them to stay back, next to the middle hangar's door, as Daisuke brought the suit in for a landing outside the leftmost building. He dropped out of the sky quickly, far quicker than Hikari expected him to, and the suit made a heavy clunk as he finally touched down on the tarmac. Up close, it was easy to see that the trail came from one of the back-mounted thruster units as it belched both smoke and electric sparks in equal measure. Another thruster, this one attached to the back of his calf, sputtered intermittently before giving out entirely as Daisuke powered down the flight systems of his suit.

He orientated himself on the waiting hangar that was already opening the large doors to allow a half dozen people to pour out, and trudged towards it with a stumbling gait that was eerily zombie like.

_He really hasn't been getting any sleep_, Hikari thought to herself as she watched her friend before following Ishida when he finally allowed them to move towards Daisuke.

Ken led the way into the hangar which, from the looks of things, catered to the mechanical needs of the unit as several armoured vehicles lined the walls in various states of completion. One, Hikari saw, had its turret suspended above it as a team of engineers swapped something out from the inside, or removed it, whilst another had both treads removed and was up on jacks. At the far end, though, was the section dedicated to Daisuke and his suit. He was already there and stepping out of his armour as technicians surrounded him and the suit, attaching various cables to different ports to do… something.

The exact nature of what they did was a mystery to Hikari as she didn't know enough about the suit to guess their function, though even she had to wonder why the team, whose job was obviously to maintain the suit, weren't replacing the broken thrusters or attending to the damaged sections of armour. Her attention quickly diverted to Daisuke as he lingered nearby, staring vacantly at the suit with half lidded eyes underlined by dark circles, a testament to his fatigue.

'Sergeant Motomiya,' Ishida called out as the group approached, making Daisuke stand to something approximation attention to Hikari's great surprise. He was never one for formality, or standing still for very long, and yet here he was coming to attention at the mere calling of his name.

'Sir,' Daisuke said on reflex, pivoting and raising a hand in salute to the officer, only to lock up in shock upon catching sight of Ken barrelling down on him. It lasted for all of a second and he quickly gave up on standing at attention to meet his best friend half way, grabbing him in a hug that would have given Mimi a run for her money.

'Ken!' Daisuke whispered hoarsely. 'What are you doing here?'

'Captain Ishida had some questions for us,' Ken said. 'And since we were in the neighbourhood, we thought we'd check up on you.'

'It's good to see you, man,' Daisuke said as he moved to hold Ken at arm's length, hands resting on his shoulders. 'I've wanted to tell you about everything for so long…'

Tears formed in the corners of his eyes but Daisuke did nothing about them, and soon they were falling down his cheeks as he just stared at Ken for the longest of moments as months of pent up emotions seemed to unleash themselves.

'You should have told me,' Ken said. 'No matter what the captain said, or his reasons. We're best friends, Daisuke. I could have been there for you.'

'I know,' Daisuke said. 'I feel so bad about lying to you, buddy, but Captain Ishida was very clear about it. He didn't want the others getting any idea of what we were doing here.'

'I could have kept it secret,' Ken said. 'You could have trusted me.'

Daisuke gave a soft laugh. 'That's exactly what I said to him when he told me to keep this a secret, but that wasn't good enough.'

The officer in question offered a half shrug when Ken glanced his way, saying, 'It was all in the interest of keeping the other DigiDestined in the dark as much as possible. Whilst you might not have actually _said_ anything to the others, there was always the chance your demeanour and attitude might change enough for them to grow suspicious to press you for details directly.'

'That's overthinking it a little,' Miyako said. 'Isn't it?'

Ishida shrugged again. 'This is the military. When we make a plan, we plan for every conceivable outcome and likely scenario. Means we don't have to rely on luck quite as much.'

'Still,' Ken said. 'Daisuke is my best friend. If he trusts me, you should as well.'

'I wish it were as simple as that,' Ishida said. 'But Daisuke had his orders, and I had mine. Minimal external communication to any of the other DigiDestined regarding our operations. That meant nothing at all could be said to any of you, even the ones Daisuke trusted.'

'You mean there are those of us he doesn't trust?' Miyako said, her tone louder than before as though annoyed, or hurt by the implication, which was enough to catch Daisuke's attention that, up until now, had solely fixated on his friend and his superior.

Quickly, he let go of Ken and wrapped up Miyako in another all-encompassing hug that knocked her back a step or two. She hesitated then returned the show of affection, hugging him back, and for a moment or two they were a heart-warming picture of friendship. Right up until Daisuke said, 'I still can't believe Ken's going out with you. He could do so much better.'

Miyako smiled at that one, replying, 'That's exactly what I said to him about who his best friend could be.'

Daisuke laughed and let go, shifting to look at the two of them stood next to one another with a smile on his face, albeit a tired one. For a split second, he looked just like the Daisuke from two years ago that had been filled with energy and enthusiasm for those around him but it quickly faded, and he went back to being the Daisuke worn down by two years of near continuous combat against infected Digimon.

Then he seemed to just space out for several seconds, his face slack and gaze distant, as though someone had disconnected his brain from his body. But then he blinked and shook his head, looking around as though confused, before locking back onto Ken and Miyako as they remained standing before him.

'Keep saying things like that and I'm going to start thinking we're more alike than I thought,' Daisuke said with a lopsided smirk. 'Unless… Ken, you haven't gone for Miyako just because she reminds you of me, have you?'

'Ew, no,' Ken said, a look of disgust on his face. 'I like you, man, I really do, but not that much.'

Daisuke laughed again, a dry sound that contained a bare hint of emotion and mirth, as he rubbed his eyes and stumbled half a step back. Another period of slack expression followed, close to fifteen seconds this time, and the three DigiDestined exchanged worried looks at their friend's behaviour. Joe had gone over some of the symptoms of sleep deprivation with them many years before, as part of a first aid course he had given them all should they find themselves stuck in the Digital World yet again.

One of the things he had gone over with them was sleep deprivation, so that they could determine for themselves when one of their own had had enough and really needed to stand down and rest. Hikari had forgotten a lot of what Joe had taught them, mostly the stuff that didn't apply to treating bodily wounds, but she recalled enough about being overtired to know Daisuke was going through what doctors called micro-sleeps, or brief periods where the brain shuts down entirely due to being active for extended periods of time, usually two or three days or more.

Once the micro-sleep was over, Daisuke jerked his head backward and affixed that tired smile back into place like nothing had happened. It faded soon enough, though, once he caught sight of Hikari as she lingered at the back of the group. There was no hug, or smile, or welcoming comment sent her way like with Ken and Miyako. He just stared at her, blinking hard several times as if clearing his eyes or to dispel a hallucination, before eventually saying her name in a curt tone.

'Hi, Daisuke,' she said back, quietly.

Nothing else followed, words failing her for the moment, and Hikari averted her gaze from Daisuke's accusing stare to the suit behind him. It was still hooked up to numerous wires and cables, but no technicians were tending to the various pieces of damage done to it by whatever Daisuke had fought. No, that wasn't quite right. Patches of armour previously home to a dent or burn no longer had them, looking mostly intact, and elsewhere the damage seemed to have been reduced.

'What?' Daisuke said at her continued silence. His glare didn't relent, either, and Hikari found herself shrinking beneath it.

'I…' she tried to say, but words still failed to follow.

'Whatever,' Daisuke said a moment later, his glower softening back into a smile as he turned to Ken and Miyako again. 'It's been great seeing you guys again.'

'It's been great to see you too, Daisuke,' Ken said. He hesitated, then added, 'I'm sorry about Veemon.'

The smile dropped, and became melancholic. 'Me too.'

'Hey, I'm sure he'll turn up,' Miyako offered. 'Back in Primary Village.'

The melancholic became despondent.

'It's been two years,' Daisuke said lowly. 'He still hasn't turned up. None of them have.'

His shoulders sagged and his gaze dropped at saying that, and the other three DigiDestined could fully understand why. Usually, a Digimon would reformat upon being destroyed and return as an egg somewhere in the Digital World where an Elecmon stood guard over them until they hatched. The time between a Digimon being destroyed and turning up as an egg wasn't overly long, a few days or weeks maybe, but if Veemon and the other Digimon destroyed by Daisuke hadn't turned up yet…

'Maybe once we defeat the person behind the virus,' Hikari said in an attempt to offer some hope to Daisuke. 'When we defeated the Dark Masters, all these eggs rained down on the village that belonged to the Digimon they had destroyed.'

He acted as though she hadn't spoken, or maybe he just hadn't heard her quiet tone in his current state of disorientation, or maybe he had fallen into another micro-sleep again. Whichever, Daisuke remained staring at a random point with an unfixed gaze for another long, silent period. Then, he heaved a short sigh and shook his head.

'It's been great seeing you guys,' he said to Ken and Miyako, either ignoring Hikari or forgetting all about her. 'Maybe we can meet up again sometime, when I'm not so busy.'

'That'd be nice,' Ken said.

'Yeah,' Daisuke said, his smile returning, but then he saw Hikari again and it soured instantly into a frown. Then he turned for a nearby door, apparently done talking with them all.

'Daisuke, wait,' Hikari called out, holding a hand to his retreating back. 'I…'

For the third time today, words failed Hikari and she could only trail off into silence as she reached out to Daisuke's back despite her stated desire of offering some manner of apology to him. Seeing him up close and after several days of fighting had served to only highlight how much strain it was placing upon him, and made her feel like no matter how heartfelt her apology, no matter the sincerity of it, it wouldn't come anywhere close to making up for the hardship she had made Daisuke endure these past two years.

After a minute or more, Daisuke said, 'Whatever,' and continued walking towards the nearby door, only to stop when Ishida spoke.

'Sergeant, stand fast,' Ishida said. 'Hikari has something she wishes to say to you, and you'll do well to listen.'

'Oh, yeah?' Daisuke muttered, glancing back at her over his shoulder. 'Must be real important if she hasn't said it yet.'

Hikari winced at the rebuke but swallowed, gathering herself, and walked up to Daisuke until she was only a few feet from him, still with her hand reaching out.

'I'm sorry,' she said, quietly at first then louder. 'I'm so, so sorry, Daisuke, for everything you've gone through because of me, because of what I've done. Or, what I've not done.'

He made no reply to that, verbally or physically, or any that Hikari was able to discern as she spoke. More tears from her threatened to appear and spill over but she forced them back as best she could, even as Daisuke continued to glare at her from the corner of his bloodshot eye.

'Nobody should have to put up with what you've gone through,' she said. 'I can't even begin to imagine what you're feeling right now, or even guess at how you keep going despite everything, and all I can do to make up for it is to offer a worthless apology to you, as if that's supposed to make up for two years of pain. And thank you, I guess. You stepped up against this threat when the rest of us did nothing, even though we should have been standing right there, beside you.'

She turned to look at all the soldiers and technicians that filled the hangar and had slowly made their way towards the meeting between Daisuke and the three newcomers, each watching events unfold with a detached interest. Most of the soldiers bore scars or fresh injuries, and wore dirty uniforms fresh from battle, and they were all just regular people that had stepped up to answer the call of defending their country against a threat the DigiDestined should have.

'I'd like to thank you all as well,' Hikari said, addressing them. 'And the offer my apologies. All of you have had to risk so much, and sacrifice even more, because of the failings of myself and the other DigiDestined. I can't speak for them all, but from me-'

Now the tears came, flowing fast and free, and her voice threatened to crack from the shame filling her but Hikari forced herself to retain some composure as she spoke to the crowd.

'I'm sorry,' Hikari finished, finishing right back where she had started with Daisuke, who hadn't moved so much as an inch. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she added, 'If there's anything I can do, or anything else I can say to try and make up for everything… Please, Daisuke, let me know. I want to start making things right.'

He said nothing but turned to look at Ishida who shrugged, saying, 'You're the one she's asking. Accept the apology, or don't. It's up to you.'

'Stay away,' was all Daisuke said. 'That's the only thing you can do.'

And with that, he left, walking away from the group through the door to do whatever. A debrief, perhaps, or to eat something, or just crash onto his bed and catch up on the sleep he clearly needed. Behind her, Hikari heard the other soldiers slowly disperse and go back to their tasks and jobs and she gradually let her outreached hand drop back to her side, where Miyako took hold of it and gave a gentle squeeze to reassure her.

Hikari didn't squeeze back and kept her attention fixed on the door Daisuke had left through, as if expecting him to come back out again, but he didn't so she eventually let Miyako pull her away to the outside world where another car, maybe even the same one from before, was waiting for them. The soldier at the wheel took off without another word and began the drive back to Odaiba, but rather than her home Hikari asked if they could stop at one of the parks in the area instead, which the driver did without complaint.

It was the same one where Daisuke's football team had faced off against Ken's when they were both only eleven, right before they had learned of his true identity, and the three of them sat down on the bleachers as they looked out at the grassy field that had once been a football pitch. The goals were gone and the lines hadn't been painted yet, that would come later in the year, but still a dozen young boys were playing a match between themselves.

'How do you feel now?' Miyako asked, breaking the silence. She still had hold of Hikari's hand, and was looking at her friend with a worried look.

'I don't know,' Hikari said, staring at the kids as they punted a ball around. It was the design used for the 2006 World Cup held last year, Taichi's obsession with the sport being the only reason Hikari could even recognise it. She had no doubt Ken knew it as well. 'I don't feel any better, but I don't feel any worse. That's good. Right?'

'I suppose,' Miyako said before falling silent for a moment, struggling with a question. Finally, she asked, 'Hikari, what did you do to Daisuke?'

'What do you mean?' Hikari asked.

'I mean, what did you do to him?' Miyako said. 'Every time I've seen the two of you together, it's like he can't stand the sight of you. There's no way the Daisuke we know would ever act like he has around you.'

'Maybe he's just angry at me for not doing anything about the infected Digimon,' Hikari offered.

'None of us did anything,' Miyako said. 'But he was happy to see me and Ken today, and Iori during the reunion. But you, Hikari, it's like he can't even stand the sight of you anymore. Something _has_ to have happened between you. Something bad.'

'I…' Hikari began to say, faltering almost immediately afterwards.

In truth, she knew exactly why Daisuke's opinion of her had fallen as low as it had. Or, part of her had known for several days now but the rest of her had refused to admit to it or even acknowledge the fact, like it was a dirty secret she was better off burying. Hearing Miyako come out and ask her question directly reversed that, and now it was all her mind could think about.

_We just want to spend some time with you._

_Like when I was kidnapped?_

It was the last thing Daisuke had said to her before leaving the reunion, a scathing comment that laid bare where the root of his disdain towards her and the older generation DigiDestined came from. For months, he and his team had been held captive by the Gennai imposter in the Digital World without anyone or anything assuming their places, and yet none of the other DigiDestined had raised a single finger to look into their disappearance. Hikari couldn't even remember what excuses or justifications she had told herself, or been told by the others, that made not looking for them okay.

All she could remember is that one day, Daisuke and the others weren't at school or hanging out with them afterwards, and that it was perfectly fine and acceptable and that she didn't need to look for them in any capacity. Not even seeing the Digimon Emperor and Imperialdramon caused them any major concern, or drove them to investigate their disappearance, beyond sending out texts and seeing if Ken was at home.

That was it. That was the most she or any of the others did towards investigating how or why their friends suddenly vanished, and during such a critical time as well.

Admitting that to herself caused a fresh wave of revulsion and self-loathing to hit Hikari, stronger than before, and she felt herself go cold inside. Four of her friends had gone missing for months and she had done nothing to bring them back, and had it not been for Taichi accidentally stumbling across them it was highly likely they would have remained locked away in stasis indefinitely. Tears soon followed.

'Hikari, what's wrong?' Miyako asked, noting the sudden shift in her friend's demeanour.

'I didn't look,' she whispered. 'I didn't look for him, for any of you.'

'When?' Ken said. 'During Yggdrasil's plans?'

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'I didn't look and I should have.'

She fought back a feeling of nausea and an urge to throw up, keeping her gaze fixed on the sparkling blue river as it flowed into Tokyo Bay and the wider Pacific. How could she have just ignored four of her closest friends, her teammates, going missing like they had? Sitting here now she couldn't think of even a single situation in which she wouldn't throw everything into finding out their fates, should the disappear again. Yet, she had done just that.

Maybe she wasn't as caring of a person as she thought herself, merely wearing a mask to hide sociopathic tendencies, or maybe she thought of Daisuke and the others as being lesser friends than the original DigiDestined on some level despite all they had gone through together.

_No_, Hikari told herself. _I'd do anything for them. Anything_.

_I'm a good person._

She clenched Miyako's hand tightly, keeping her gaze on the river, but as she watched it the clear blue water became black and the heavy scent of salt air hit her, as did the sensation of something clammy trailing across her skin. Hikari flinched and recoiled at the sensations, desperately wanting to get up and flee, only to find her body was refusing to respond to any commands.

_Darkness. I can feel it in you. It calls to us…_

The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once, an ethereal sound that shook Hikari to her core, but nowhere near as much as the sight of shadowy, mishappen creatures hauling themselves out of the water and onto the grassy pitch. Red eyes glowed from them and bored directly into Hikari as she remained frozen on the stone bleachers, acutely aware both Ken and Miyako were gone, as was Gatomon, and the boys playing on the field.

Heavy fog rolled in as even more creatures stumbled their way onto dry land, clambering over one another in some grotesque, slow motion race to reach her. And through the fog, behind the river and the creatures, Hikari saw a shadow rise up that dwarfed the nearby buildings. Its shape was indistinct, and seemed to shift and rearrange itself on a constant basis, but what drew her attention the most was a pair of crimson red eyes right at the top of the shadow. They looked hungry and they were locked right on her.

'My queen…'

She screamed.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

A harsh clinical light filled Hikari's eyes when she finally cracked them open, sending a dull throbbing pain coursing throughout her head, and she groaned in response to the stimuli, and then she was confused. The Dark Ocean wasn't supposed to have any kind of light, harsh or otherwise, just various shades of black and grey.

Her confusion gave way to alarm at the memory of being taken to the Dark Ocean, and energy surged through Hikari's body as she forced her eyes wide open and lifted her head up. It got a few inches then her strength gave way, her head falling back down onto a surprisingly soft surface that yielded to her, right as the overbearing whiteness of the light faded back to something more bearable.

A mass of ceiling tiles faded into her view and at once, Hikari knew she wasn't in the Dark Ocean. Judging by the bland décor and heavy scent of antiseptic in the air, she was actually in a hospital of some kind. She tried to raise her head again and look around, but failed, and resigned herself to letting her eyes rove around whatever they could see.

She was in a private room at least, not a ward, with a wooden cabinet to her left topped by a smattering of get well soon cards and her personal effects. To her right was a machine letting out steady beeps as it tracked her vitals. Across from her were two chairs sat either side of the door, and in the righthand seat was the blurry outline of her brother as he tried to curl up in the uncomfortable seat and sleep.

'Taichi,' Hikari croaked out, her voice rusty after who knew how long of disuse. She swallowed and coughed, and tried again. 'Taichi.'

Her brother stirred at that, rousing himself, and he sat up to stare at his little sister as she came to. In an instant, he snapped awake and was by her side, holding her hand.

'Hey, you're awake,' he said in a quiet voice, little more than a whisper. 'Took you long enough.'

'Where am I?' Hikari whispered back.

'The hospital,' Taichi said. 'One of the private suites. Do you want something to drink?'

'Please,' Hikari said.

Her throat felt dry and it was cutting into her ability to conversate, and she was grateful when Taichi offered her the straw of a juice box. The packaging said it was some kind of apple flavour but she couldn't taste much of anything.

'Better?' Taichi said.

'Yeah,' Hikari said. 'Thanks.'

'Great,' Taichi said with a smile. 'You had us all worried there for a little while.'

'What happened?' Hikari asked. 'I remember… I remember seeing these monsters crawling out of the water, and the shadow of something else standing in the fog. Then… nothing.'

'Officially, you passed out because of a fever,' Taichi said. 'That's what we told the doctors anyway, and it was true enough because when they brought you in you actually were burning up. Really, though, we're not sure. Ken and Miyako said you just started phasing in and out of existence as you sat on the bleachers, this terrified expression on your face.

'Next thing, light's exploding out from you and you're lying there unconscious, running a temperature. They called for an ambulance, and us, and here we are three days later.'

That made Hikari start. 'Three days?'

'Yeah,' Taichi said. 'Me and Takeru have been rotating shifts in this chair, waiting for you to wake up.'

'Did I miss anything?'

Taichi shook his head. 'Nothing much. We've spent most of that time trying to figure out what happened to you.'

'That Dark Ocean,' Hikari said. 'It tried to take me.'

'Yeah, we figured that part out,' Taichi said, nodding. 'It happened just like Gatomon said it did last time. Apart from the explosion, of course.'

'I exploded?' Hikari repeated. 'With light?'

A grin spread onto Taichi's face at that and he said, 'Bright light. It gave Ken and Miyako matching tans on the sides of their faces. They make quite the pair.'

He laughed a little and Hikari had to as well, imagining the sight of Miyako with only half a tan on her face and whatever excuses she had to come up with to explain it away. But then the siblings lapsed into silence as the gravity of the situation reasserted itself once again. The Dark Ocean had tried to take Hikari, and failed thanks only to some random fluke.

'Do you have any idea what that light was?' Taichi asked after a minute.

'No,' Hikari said. 'My crest, maybe. I am the DigiDestined of Light, after all.'

_And the embodiment of light should be a good person_, she told herself. _Which you haven't been._

'That's what Koushiro thought,' Taichi said. 'He's gotten in contact with Gennai to see if he has any ideas, but if your crest could protect you from the Dark Ocean this time why didn't it save you before?'

'I don't know,' Hikari said.

Privately, she couldn't help but wonder why the crest had even bothered to step in and save her at all this time, assuming that was what the light even came from. She had done a very dark thing by ignoring the plight of her friends when they were kidnapped. Maybe the voice was right, and darkness really did dwell within her.

'You feeling okay, sis?' Taichi said.

'I guess,' Hikari said. 'At least I'm not in the Dark Ocean, right?'

'Right,' Taichi said, nodding once, but his brow knitted together in an expression Hikari recognised as meaning her brother was either thinking deeply about something, or there was another worry on his mind that he needed to talk about, or both.

'What is it?' she asked.

'What's what?' Taichi said.

'The worry on your mind,' Hikari said. 'Other than me.'

'I don't have another worry,' Taichi said, a little too quickly for it to be the truth, so Hikari just levelled her sternest glare his way until the elder Yagami sibling caved, sighing and looking away. 'It's Ken and Miyako, and Iori too, I guess.'

'What about them?' Hikari said. 'They're not in trouble, are they? Are their partners infected?'

'No,' Taichi said. 'Nothing like that.'

'Then what?' Hikari said.

'They've stopped talking to us,' Taichi said. 'All three of them. I haven't gotten a single text from Miyako asking if you awake yet, and neither has Takeru. No emails or voicemails, either. It's like they've lost all our contact information.'

'Have you tried ringing them?'

'Yeah, all three, and I get nothing,' Taichi said. 'If it doesn't go to voicemail, it just keeps ringing and ringing and ringing until I close the call. Something's up with them.'

Hikari's first thought was that history was repeating itself and someone had kidnapped all three of them, plus maybe Daisuke, and she tried to reach for her phone but the strength still hadn't returned to her body. Everything from her hairline down felt weak and numb and responded to her commands in only a vague fashion, and the most her arm was able to do was slide a few inches towards the phone as her head titled in its general direction.

Taichi got the message quickly enough and grabbed it for her, flipping open the device to see a trio of unread text messages waiting for her. All were from Miyako, with the most recent being from lunch time that day.

'Do you want me to reply for you?' Taichi asked, but Hikari shook her head.

'I'll do it when I can feel my body again,' she said. 'But at least now we know she's not missing.'

'Why would she be missing?' Taichi asked.

'Because,' Hikari said. 'The last time they stopped responding to our messages, they'd been kidnapped by Alphamon and the Gennai imposter. I was worried it'd happened again.'

'Well, they haven't been taken,' Taichi said. 'Unless someone's just using Miyako's phone to trick us.'

Hikari smiled and shook her head. 'No, that's from Miyako all right. She has a unique style to her messages.'

Taichi looked at her for a second, then the messages, then back to Hikari and said, 'They seem like normal messages to me.'

'That's because you're not best friends with her,' Hikari said. 'She likes using certain words, specific phrases, that sort of thing. Friends pick up on them after a while.'

Then her smile faltered, because she hadn't been much of a best friend two years ago. Thankfully, Taichi didn't seem to notice. He looked at the phone again and shrugged, not seeing what his sister had, and snapped it shut again before tossing it onto the bed. He returned to his uncomfortable seat in the corner and sat down heavily.

'Did she say anything about why they've stopped talking to us?' he asked after a moment.

'No,' Hikari said. 'Nothing.'

'When you were at the park, before you passed out,' Taichi continued. 'Did she or Ken make any kind of comment that suggested they were going to just abruptly cut off contact with all of us?'

'No,' Hikari said. 'They didn't.'

'Are you sure?' Taichi said, leaning forward. 'This kind of blackout doesn't just happen without a reason, and she's still willing to text you. So think, Hikari. Anything they might have said.'

So she did, replaying what she could remember of the meeting that had transpired three days ago and cumulated with her exploding with light as the Dark Ocean came to take her. Everything that was said, how it was said, and how people responded to it. For the most part, everything seemed innocuous enough and nothing immediately stood out to Hikari as being a catalyst for Miyako, Ken and Iori suddenly turning their backs on the others.

All, that is, apart from one comment she had made right before the Dark Ocean came for her.

She had told them both how she didn't put any real effort into tracking them down when they went missing, and it wouldn't have taken a genius to come to the conclusion that neither had the rest of the DigiDestined. If one of the more caring members hadn't lifted a finger to find her DNA partner, then there was little to chance anyone else had done so, either. The puzzling part was that Miyako seemed willing to message her despite this admission of negligence, and Hikari was the one she should be mad at the most.

The only explanation Hikari could come up with was Miyako had seen the look of despair on her friend's face at admitting that, the genuine grief and anguish, and forgiven her, if only a little. It couldn't be that simple, Hikari told herself, that such a betrayal of friendship was so easily forgiven based off of the remorse a person showed after the fact. She couldn't even be sure she would do the same, should their roles be reversed.

'I told them we never really looked for them,' Hikari finally said. 'Any of them.'

'What, you mean when Yggdrasil had them kidnapped?' Taichi said.

'Yeah,' Hikari said. She swallowed. 'Why didn't we ever look for them?'

'We did,' Taichi said. 'Remember?'

'I remember Takeru and me going to Ken's apartment and knocking on his door,' Hikari said. 'And sending messages to the others, but only _after_ we saw what we thought was Ken as the Digimon Emperor. Not before. That's not a search, and if it is then it's a poor excuse for one.'

Her brother said nothing back to that, averting his gaze from Hikari to look at some random point on the wall to his left. Neither he nor the others had put in any effort beyond what she and Takeru had done, sending occasional text messages and emails to the missing four. Yet, as he sat there, Hikari began to get the impression the admission of this seemed to hardly bother Taichi by any noticeable degree. If anything, he seemed to take the lack of an investigation as being wholly normal and understandable.

'I'm sure we looked harder than that,' he said. 'We must have.'

'If we did, you did it without me,' Hikari said. 'Because I don't remember us being all that concerned with their lengthy absence.'

'We must have,' Taichi said again. 'There's no way we would have just left them.'

Hikari returned her attention back to Taichi, though only to stare at him in disbelief at the words coming from his mouth. At no point during the entire three-month period when Daisuke and the others had gone missing did any of the older DigiDestined make a noteworthy attempt to find the four of them, or even a half-assed attempt. Certainly Taichi hadn't rallied everyone to finding them, so how could he sit there and say that they must have looked for them?

His eyes swivelled back to Hikari. 'You don't think Miyako and Ken believed you when you said we never looked for them, do you?'

'I think it's a very real possibility,' Hikari said. 'Being told that the people you thought were friends didn't mount a rescue attempt can be a hell of a deal breaker for some.'

'But why would they believe that?' Taichi said. 'Of course we looked for them.'

'That's not how I remember it,' Hikari said.

'Then maybe you didn't look as hard as the rest of us,' Taichi said. 'I know I looked for them.'

For a small moment, Hikari grew unsure of herself. She had no doubt her recollection of recent events, even as far back as two years ago, was near perfect and her memory of the attacks by infected Digimon did not include the eight of them going above and beyond in the search for their missing members. At the same time, Taichi seemed so convinced that they had actually responded accordingly and acted as they should, searching high and low for everyone. One of them had to be wrong, but which?

There were few people she could ask to corroborate the story, perhaps even just one, and that was Meiko. Hikari couldn't really recall if she had mentioned Daisuke and the others to her at all during the times they had spoken, or if anyone else had for that matter. Other things seemed to take priority, trivial things, stuff that shouldn't have been the focus of their conversations, and Hikari's brows knitted together in deep thought as she cast her mind's eye back to that time and to every single word or text she had sent Meiko's way.

'When you're done thinking,' Taichi said, bringing Hikari back to reality. 'Message Miyako and tell her that we actually did look for them, even if you seem to think otherwise.'

'I know what I did,' Hikari said. 'Or, what I didn't do.'

'So do I,' Taichi said. 'And none of it involves abandoning my friends.'

He stood and stretched to work out some of the kinks that the chair had given him, and looked at his sister, saying, 'Look, I'm happy you're finally awake and everything, and I'm going to tell mom and dad, and the others, but you need to set the record straight with Miyako, Ken and Iori. We can't have them not talking to us at this time.'

'I'll message them,' Hikari said.

'Great,' Taichi said, before smiling. 'Nice to know you're okay, sis.'

She allowed herself a smile back and summoned enough strength to waggle her fingers in something resembling a wave goodbye, and Taichi waved back as he left the room to leave Hikari alone with just her phone, some cards and a machine that constantly beeped at her. For a brief moment, she thought the beeping was going to drive her crazy but soon enough, her eyelids became unreasonably heavy and, as crazy as it was for a person that had just come out of a three day coma, Hikari allowed herself to fall into a deep and dreamless slumber that left her feeling more like herself when she finally awoke some hours later.

There was nobody in the room this time but Takeru had been by evidently, judging by the bouquet of flowers and small box of chocolates sitting in one of the chairs, and a few more cards had sprung up in the meantime as well. Hikari reached for one of them, her arms at last responding to her commands, and read through the message of well wishing contained inside. It was from some of her classmates and they had added their own little touches to the pre-written platitudes, and the others were more of the same. There was one from her parents, and her brother, and Takeru of course and the rest of the DigiDestined sans Daisuke, but the one that piqued her interest the most was a simple looking envelope inscribed with her name in equally plain script.

She picked it up and opened the envelope, seeing a single sheet of paper inside. Surprisingly, it was from Captain Ishida and asked, in laconic form, for her to call him when she was awake to discuss what happened regarding her attempted abduction. Despite herself, Hikari gave a short laugh at the method of communication he had chosen. The captain could have easily left a message on her phone, text or voice, but instead he or someone under his command had delivered a letter directly to her room in hospital.

Next, Hikari grabbed her phone and sorted through all the text messages that had piled up. Like the cards, they were from her friends asking after her and wishing her a speedy recovery from her 'fever', and again Hikari ignored most of them to pull up the only one that interested her, the most recent message from Miyako. She composed a short reply stating all was well now, that she was awake, and asked Miyako to either come and see her or call.

An instant later, her phone trilled with an incoming alert from Miyako, warning Hikari she had less than an hour before she'd be at the hospital. Hikari messaged back, asking if Miyako could bring some snacks from her family's store. Unpleasant memories of dining on hospital food came back to her and Hikari fought back a shiver of revulsion. Happily, Miyako agreed.

An hour later, she was standing in the doorway as promised with a plastic bag filled with food in each hand, though there was a glare on her face as she looked at Hikari lying in bed. She hadn't come in bearing the look, rather a smile at seeing her friend was awake and seemingly healthy, but it quickly appeared once Hikari burst out laughing at seeing exactly what Taichi had foretold.

'Yes, yes, it's really funny,' Miyako said, turning her head away from the bedridden girl to show the tanned side only. 'I have a tan on only half my face.'

'Does Ken look like you, too?' Hikari asked between laughs.

'A mirror image,' Miyako said. 'I keep telling people who see us that we fell asleep next to a window when it was sunny.'

Hikari laughed some more, to the point tears were streaming from her eyes and her sides began to hurt, and she could barely manage to wheeze out, 'I know I caused it, and I should be saying sorry, but it looks so funny!'

'I'm glad it could bring some joy to you at such a terrible time,' Miyako said, turning to face Hikari head on.

This had the unintended consequence of showcasing the two sides of her face, one tanned and one not, with the line running almost perfectly down the middle. Combined with the serious expression Miyako was affecting, it sent Hikari into hysterics and several minutes passed before the laughter stopped, or subsided enough that talking wasn't too much of a chore to do. The occasional giggle escaped her lips as Miyako sat down in the chair not filled with flowers and chocolates, placing the bags of food down by her feet.

'I'm sorry,' Hikari said, even if she was smiling widely.

'Ah, don't worry about it,' Miyako said, waving the issue away. 'Better Ken and I look funny than you being dragged to the Dark Ocean, right?'

'Right,' Hikari said, her smile fading. 'Can you tell me what happened?'

'Taichi didn't tell you?' Miyako said.

'He did, but I'd rather hear it from the people that were there.'

Miyako nodded. 'Well, to start with, you just stopped talking and kept staring at the river like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. Next thing, you're fading and out of reality with this terrified expression on your face. Ken and I were shouting at you to snap out of it, Gatomon was trying to grab hold of you, then you screamed.

'That's why me and Ken got tans on only half our faces, because it was so loud. We had to turn away.'

'And then I exploded,' Hikari said.

'Yeah,' Miyako said. 'It was the weirdest thing. Your entire body just glowed with light and became solid again, and then…'

Miyako gestured at her half-tanned face, indicating what came next.

'And then I exploded,' Hikari repeated. 'Did either of you notice anything unusual?'

'No,' Miyako said. 'One minute, we're sat there talking and the next, you're lighting up the world.'

'Ken didn't sense anything?' Hikari said. 'Nothing at all?'

'No,' Miyako said again, shaking her head. 'As far as he was concerned, it was business as usual.'

'So they're only after me,' Hikari said.

'I guess,' Miyako said. 'Will they try again?'

'I don't know,' Hikari said as she drew her knees up and hugged them. 'They probably will.'

'Do you think that light thing will save you again?'

'I hope so,' Hikari said.

She had her doubts though, given she had no idea where it had come from or why. Maybe Gennai had some ideas, or knew exactly what it was. The likeliest explanation was that the light came from her crest, some kind of defensive mechanism against the forces of darkness, though this still begged the question of why it hadn't protected her the first time the Dark Ocean abducted her, or why it was choosing to protect her now despite everything she had done.

Hikari sighed, resting her chin on her arms and stared blankly at the foot of her bed without seeing it. Maybe she really did deserve to be taken into the Dark Ocean, where she would willing submit herself to participate in whatever vile plans those creatures had for her. A fitting punishment, she thought, for a champion of the light that had caused so much darkness.

But, another part of her argued, if she did that then the rest of the world would suffer a thousand-fold. The Dark Ocean's creatures explicitly wanted her to be the breeding grounds for a new army, one powerful and numerous enough to overwhelm the Earth and establish control of her people. If she really was on the side of good, her only concern should be doing everything to protect and safeguard those people.

_Submit…_

It was the same voice from before. An ethereal and ghostly whisper that had no discernible point of origin, as if it was coming from within her own head, and like then it made Hikari shiver violently in fear as she hugged her knees tighter. Her skin crawled as something invisible caressed her and she jerked away from it, though her despair grew as the light in the roomed dimmed considerably and the shadows grew longer.

_Submit._

The voice came back, louder than before, and Hikari reacted as she had before by shivering in fright. She could feel it pulling at her, trying to drag her back to the Dark Ocean, but she refused to comply. Despite all the horrid things she had done to her friends over the past few years, she still thought of herself as being a good person and fighting for the good of the people. Her punishment would be living with the knowledge she had failed, and trying to right that wrong so long as she lived.

'No!' Hikari shouted, bringing her arms out in a violent, sweeping motion intended to push back whatever was reaching out for her. 'I will not submit!'

The shadows retreated and colour returned to the room instantly, barring a dark patch beneath the unoccupied chair. Hikari looked at it and saw a pair of crimson eyes peering back at her with an angry expression.

_So be it_, the voice rumbled. _You have made your choice. Now suffer for it._

The eyes vanished and the shadow faded, and Hikari sank back onto her pillows as the strength left her body. Miyako was by her side in the blink of an eye, holding tightly onto her arm and hand as though her life depended on it.

'Hikari!' she shouted. 'Hikari! What happened?'

'They came for me again,' she said weakly. 'The Dark Ocean… It wanted me to submit to them, but I refused.'

'Good,' Miyako whispered. 'That's good.'

'But I think they're going to try something more direct now,' Hikari added, thinking about the final comment the shadow had said. Her expression became downcast.

'Whatever it is, we'll deal with it,' Miyako said. 'I'm not going to let them take you anywhere.'

Hikari smiled at her friend at that and forced herself to sit back up, with Miyako's help, though her comment made the smile fade quickly enough. She was still willing to stand by her, despite Hikari's own admission that no meaningful search had been made on her part when she went missing, whilst at the same time refusing to make any contact with the other members of the group. There had to be some reason for it, and Hikari wanted to know. So she asked, and Miyako answered.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Her story began in the immediate aftermath of the Dark Ocean's abortive attempt to take Hikari, where a deep concern for her unconscious friend overtook the uncomfortable feelings covering half her face. Most of what she said fell in line with what Hikari expected it to be, how an ambulance was called for and Miyako rode with it whilst Ken made his own way to the hospital, both of them letting the relevant parties know what had transpired, and then filling in everyone as they drifted into the hospital in twos and threes.

At this point, things began to diverge from what Hikari expected because as they waited, Ken and Miyako both discussed between themselves her last statement before slipping into a coma of how no real searching was done at any point for any of them. Initially, both of them felt she had to either be lying or was just confused, believing that there was absolutely no way any the group have just forgotten them like they had, but the more they thought her statement and some other comments made by others, their suspicion began to grow.

The next morning, Ken had called Captain Ishida to inform him of the attempt and to ask him if he had any contact with the Incorporated Administrative Agency, a government outfit that had dealt with the DigiDestined during their battles against Yggdrasil and kept track of them all during that time. Ishida confirmed this and asked the obvious question of why, so Ken told him of their suspicion and the hope that the IAA still had their surveillance logs, so they could see if it was true or not.

They did, and by that afternoon Ken, Miyako and Iori were meeting with Captain Ishida at a bland, unassuming office building that housed the records detailing just what, where and when the DigiDestined did something during that time. Outside of the obvious battles and their trip to the Digital World, all the records revealed was that the eight of them had led mundane and ordinary lives when they weren't battling monsters caused by Meicoomon's infection.

Three months or more of observations of eight individuals resulted in a total of almost two years' worth of time to sift through, even with individual days and weeks summarised and with three people reading nonstop, and the clock hands were closing in on midnight when they finally finished the final report and sat back, exhausted and numb, and angry too, because at no point did any of them actually mount a meaningful rescue attempt, just as Hikari foretold.

Text and email logs between them, itemised daily routines and excursions, even occasional excerpts of conversations between members, and in none of it was searching for four of their own the main topic. At best, they were treated like an afterthought that got dismissed easily with the flimsiest of excuses. At worst, and most often, they just weren't mentioned at all.

A cynical person might have deemed it all a huge misdirect, aimed at fracturing the DigiDestined as a cohesive unit, but to say that the three of them had read through a mile of paper wouldn't have been much of an exaggeration. There was no way anybody could have thought to compile this much false data on the off chance someone wanted to know what their friends had done, or not done, so the three of them had to accept the hundreds of thousands of pages as being genuine and authentic, and accept that eight people they considered to be close friends and teammates had just entirely abandoned them in such a trying time.

Anger quickly followed, even hatred, but tempering their feelings over Hikari was her display of despair and anguish.

'It shouldn't have,' Hikari said when Miyako reached this point. 'I was just as apathetic as the rest of them. You read my file, didn't you?'

'I did,' Miyako said. 'I requested it, actually.'

'So why are you here, talking to me?' Hikari said.

'A couple of reasons,' Miyako said. 'The first one is, I saw how much it hurt to finally realise you didn't do anything to find us. A person only reacts like that if they truly, deeply care about those people.'

'If I cared that much, I would have looked,' Hikari said. 'Tirelessly.'

'I know you would have,' Miyako said. 'In fact, you were the one to raise the issue of us being missing the most out of everyone else. Only, every time you did, someone would present a more immediate problem that needed everybody's attention, or an attack would occur, or they'd brush off your concerns somehow so you'd stop worrying.

'Don't get me wrong, I'm still furious that you didn't try harder to find us and didn't push the issue more with the others. Every fibre of my being is telling me to beat you to a pulp, or cut you out of my life entirely, or both.'

Hikari looked away from her, guilt etched onto her face, and said, 'So why?'

'For the same reason why Captain Ishida is warming up to you,' Miyako said. 'You're willing to admit you could have done so much more, and you're ready to do anything to make up for it. None of the others have done anything like that.'

'He's warming up to me?' Hikari said, perplexed.

Then she recalled the difference in the officer's demeanour during their first interaction and the meeting about the Dark Ocean, how he seemed far more open with them all and much less antagonistic, and nodded in agreement.

'I guess so,' she said. A pause, then, 'Miyako, I'm so sorry for what happened.'

'It's fine,' Miyako said. 'Just promise me, next time I go missing for any length of time, you do everything in your power to find me. Okay?'

'Sure,' Hikari said, before smiling. 'But what if I want Ken all to myself? He's not exactly bad looking, is he?'

'Oh, no, you stay away from him,' Miyako said, wagging a finger in Hikari's direction. 'That boy is mine and mine alone. He has been since I first laid eyes on him.'

Hikari laughed and Miyako joined her, feeling good despite recent events. At least, they were until she said, 'You need to talk to Taichi.'

'I have nothing to say to him,' Miyako said, her smile vanishing. 'He did nothing to find us. Nothing.'

'Please,' Hikari said. 'At the very least, tell him _why_ you, Ken and Iori have stopped speaking to him and the others.'

'That's still pushing it,' Miyako said. 'I'm willing to forgive you, Hikari, but not him. Not any of the others, either.'

'Please,' Hikari said again. 'He seems convinced that they actually went out searching for you. Like, I tried to say otherwise and he said I was misremembering things.'

'He's the one misremembering,' Miyako muttered darkly. 'Ken read his file and said he barely mentioned us in his texts and emails. There wasn't even a call to Daisuke's parents to see if they knew where he was, and he never went to their apartment.'

'So tell him that,' Hikari said. 'Tell him you have proof nobody did anything, all of it from the IAA. He _has_ to believe it if it came from their files.'

Miyako's gaze softened and she sighed briefly, turning away. 'It won't be as easy as that. The only way we were able to view those files was because Captain Ishida was with us, and that's the only way we can view them in future. Taichi absolutely detests him, remember? If he's convinced himself that he looked for us, he'll probably convince himself the documents are forgeries by Ishida to make him seem bad.'

The thought hadn't occurred to Hikari. But then, Captain Ishida hadn't been quite as hostile to her as he had her brother, so her perception of him was bound to be radically different. Could they find someone else to give them access? Someone they knew and trusted, preferably from the IAA itself? Nobody sprang to mind, immediately or after several long moments to think. The two people that had interacted with the DigiDestined the most, if not entirely, were either dead or missing. Meiko's father might have been another possibility but he had only worked with the IAA as a freelance researcher.

She let her gaze drop. 'He might.'

'I wish I could believe that,' Miyako said quietly. 'I really do, Hikari, but looking at those reports I couldn't help think that Taichi and the others didn't see us new kids as actual friends. It makes me wonder if they ever did.'

'Of course we do,' Hikari said, but her words didn't seem to convince Miyako it was true. They barely sounded convincing to her.

'I want to believe that,' Miyako said. 'We had some good times together, Hikari. All of us. It felt like we were one big family.'

She trailed off and stopped, still staring at the wall. Hikari saw tears form in the corners of Miyako's eyes and creep down her cheek, dropping onto her hands as they lay clenched in her lap. The sight brought forth guilt in Hikari's chest as she looked on at yet more misery brought about by her actions, even ones made with the best of intentions. Had she said nothing, then Miyako and Ken and Iori wouldn't be feeling betrayed by people they saw as good friends, and the DigiDestined wouldn't be even more splintered than before.

It was an awful way to end what had started out as an otherwise pleasant visit from a close friend and Hikari hated herself for doing so, and she could only watch in silence as Miyako wiped her eyes and stood to leave. They exchanged goodbyes and hugs, and a promise to meet up with Ken and Iori once she was discharged, and then Miyako was gone, leaving behind only two bags of convenience store food and a bitter aftertaste in Hikari's mouth.

She left the bags where they were, her appetite fading, and leant back in her bed to stare up at the bland ceiling tiles above. In them she saw Miyako's hurt expression, and Ken's, and Iori's, and of course Daisuke's, as they learned for themselves that the people they considered close friends were anything but. No wonder Daisuke had left them all behind to join Captain Ishida's unit. Had their positions been reversed, Hikari could easily see herself making the same choice as him.

Part of her wanted to call him, or send a message, to try and explain why she hadn't looked harder for him and make up whatever apologies she could think, but it would be a futile gesture. Daisuke hadn't responded to a single thing she or anyone else had sent him since their reunion, and the revelation he was working with the JSDF, so there was no point. It was also too late to see if Takeru could stop by the hospital, what with visiting hours being almost over, and her room didn't even have a television she could watch to pass the time with.

All that left her with was wallowing in misery and self-loathing over how seemingly her every action ended up hurting those closest to her in some way, big and small, until the shadows in her room lengthened as the sun set and night came, and she drifted to sleep where bad dreams plagued her.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

The doctors discharged Hikari in the morning, happy her alleged fever had died down as quickly as it had, and she grimaced against the bright sunlight as she left the building for the first time in four days. It irked her that nobody had come to meet her as she left, work and other commitments getting in the way, but at the same time she was relieved because it meant she could avoid getting into any awkward conversations with them about the most recent fracturing of the group. There was no way she could face them right now.

But then, was there ever going to be a time when she could? The evidence from the IAA was damning in that it laid bare the negligence of the older generation when it came to caring for the others, even if they all seemed to believe the direct opposite. Or, at least, Taichi did. She still had no idea if everyone else held the same beliefs that they had done everything they could have. Her hand twitched for the phone in her pocket, as though ready to send out a mass message to everyone, but Hikari checked the motion before it could go anywhere.

If both she and Taichi firmly believed that they had looked, then the odds were good that so did everyone else. A resigned sigh escaped Hikari's lips as she orientated herself in the direction of home and began walking, though with no particular urgency to her step. Home meant Taichi, and Taichi meant talking about why Miyako, Ken and Iori had left the group, and she wanted to avoid that topic for as long as possible. Besides, it was a nice enough day and she had spent too much time inside of late.

But, of course, the world seemed to have other ideas as Hikari spotted a rather plain looking sedan parked on her side of the street, a clean-shaven man at the wheel, and she immediately knew it was here for her. It was the exact same model of car used by Captain Ishida's unit and the driver had a military air about him as he sat ramrod straight in the seat. She adjusted course to the car, knowing it would be futile to ignore it, and as she drew close the window buzzed down.

Hikari leaned down to speak with the driver and was surprised to see Ishida was in the passenger seat. Even more so, he wasn't in his usual fatigues but civilian clothes, as was the driver.

'Hello, Hikari,' Ishida said with a nod. 'Feeling better?'

'Yeah,' Hikari said. 'I guess.'

'Better than the alternative,' Ishida said. 'Would you like a lift home?'

'I'd rather walk,' Hikari said. 'I think I've spent enough time inside.'

Ishida nodded. 'Do you mind if I came with you? There are some things I'd like to discuss.'

'Sure,' Hikari said.

He nodded again then got out of the car, joining Hikari on the pavement. Once he was, the driver took off without another word and soon sped out of sight into the traffic. Hikari watched it go then turned to her companion, still caught off guard by his civilian attire which consisted of a light T-shirt under an open jacket, loose fitting denim jeans, and a pair of scuffed brown boots that had seen plenty of miles.

'Yes, I do own something other than fatigues,' Ishida said, seeing her continued look. 'They come out when I'm off duty.'

'Or when you need to go unnoticed,' Hikari said.

'That too,' Ishida said with a nod. 'Shall we?'

He gestured with his head along the pavement, towards the Yagami apartment, and Hikari set off again for home with Ishida a few feet to her right, his longer legs easily keeping pace with her. For the first few minutes he said nothing, casting his gaze from side to side in search of threats maybe, or just the least obstructed path, gently nudging Hikari one way or another as he did to keep them together.

Then, 'Has the Dark Ocean made any further attempts to take you?'

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'Just one.'

'Tell me about it,' Ishida said.

'It was pretty similar to before,' Hikari said, giving the officer a brief rundown on what she had felt and seen and done, adding, 'And then it said I'd be made to suffer for my choice.'

'It spoke directly to you?' Ishida said. 'The Dark Ocean did?'

'One of the creatures did,' Hikari said. 'Or their god. I can't be sure.'

'That's worrying,' Ishida said, frowning. 'What did they say exactly?'

Hikari thought back to her time in the hospital and the shadow beneath the chair, saying, 'So be it. You have made your choice. Now suffer for it.'

'How wonderfully vague,' Ishida said. 'That could mean anything.'

'Do you have any ideas?' Hikari asked.

Ishida nodded, his face grim. 'Two, and neither of them are good. The first scenario is that the Dark Ocean will begin targeting those closest to you, either in an attempt to break your spirit or just as petty revenge.

'The second is that they'll become more direct in their abduction methods, forgoing their previous methods for the direct approach to simply grab you physically. They've certainly got the forces to make that a likely option, and it's the one I'm worried about the most.'

'But you said they don't have enough troops to pose a real threat,' Hikari said. 'Not in the long run.'

'They don't,' Ishida said. 'Whilst Daisuke was busy battling the infected Digimon, my superiors were meeting with heads of state and their military commanders to brief them on the full extent of the threat looming over us. Agreements have been made and plans consolidated, and troops the world over are being equipped and trained with anti-Digimon weapons.

'Should the Dark Ocean finally send in the fodder, there'll be three million or so soldiers ready to stand against them.'

'So what's the problem?' Hikari asked.

'The problem is, we're geared towards detecting and mobilising against an invading army,' Ishida said. 'Not a small strike team going after a specific objective. As we don't currently have the means of detecting any portals between here and the Dark Ocean, we wouldn't know about any incursion by them until afterwards.'

'I thought you could track them,' Hikari said. 'You told us that during the first meeting.'

'I said we can track the energy build up of infected Digimon prior to digivolving,' Ishida said. 'And that only works with GI Digimon. The ones taken by the Dark Ocean are partnered to DigiDestined, and are unable to digivolve beyond their current level, which means we can't track them.'

'Does that mean they could be coming for me right now?' Hikari said as she stopped walking, nervously craning her head around in search of an infected Digimon bearing down on her.

'Yes,' Ishida said.

'Isn't there anything you can do about it?' Hikari asked.

'Not much,' Ishida said with a sad shake of his head. 'The best option is to put you into protective custody at one of our bases, in case the Dark Ocean can only open a portal within your general area. If they can do so on your exact location, we might still be able to respond but luck would be a deciding factor.'

'So do it,' Hikari said. 'We can't have the Dark Ocean using me to create another army.'

Ishida nodded and responded at once, pulling out his phone to make a series of calls to various people under his command. Thirty seconds later, Hikari heard the squeal of tyres and turned to see the car from before coming around a corner at speed, previously hidden blue lights flashing to alert everyone else it was in a hurry, and it came to a stop by her. She felt Ishida's hand on her back as he pushed her towards the backseat, and even before her door was shut or her seatbelt was in place the car was speeding off again.

'This is Sierra Actual to Sierra-1,' Ishida said into his phone, apparently unconcerned by the breakneck pace their driver was keeping. 'I need you to provide overwatch for a high value target in transit to headquarters. We believe the Dark Ocean might be after them. Yes, it's her. No, now. She takes priority.'

He turned to the driver. 'Air support will be in play within six minutes.'

'Fifty-six to base,' the driver said.

'Shave that,' Ishida said.

'Yes, sir,' the driver said.

The car surged forward and aimed straight for any gap in the traffic it could find, including some that looked far too small to admit the sedan and Hikari found herself shying away every time it seemed like they were going to crash, or scrape another car, and they left a wake of honking horns behind them from irate drivers that didn't notice or didn't care that they had blue lights on. Things became marginally better when they made it onto the highway and the road emptied out some, but now they had trucks to contend with.

'Assholes,' the driver muttered under his breath as one truck pulled out to overtake another as they approached, only to then take notice of the blue lights and slam on the brakes and move over again, freeing up the lane.

Hikari turned around and looked out the rear window at the two trucks as they receded into the distance, one of them trailing tyre smoke.

'ETA?' Ishida said.

'Thirty-eight,' the driver said. 'Assuming traffic is about normal.'

'Better,' Ishida said. He listened to his phone. 'Air support on station, one mile back and one mile up.'

Their ward turned around again and tried to spot Daisuke, seeing a speck above and behind them all that easily kept pace with the speeding car. Had he come from a battle just to keep watch over her? It had certainly sounded like it from Ishida's side of the conversation, and Hikari wondered if other soldiers had been there as well, and were enough to pick up the slack Daisuke's departure caused. She waved at him, not knowing if he could see the gesture, then sat back in her seat for the rest of the journey.

Barring some close calls and angry horns, they made it to the base without issue and soon Hikari found herself standing on the tarmac outside the three hangars, only this time she was surrounded by dozens of armed troops and their combat vehicles, and Daisuke was hanging in the air above them all. She stared up at him, ignoring everything else, until he flew off to his next fight.

Only then did she return her attention to Ishida as he spoke with a half dozen soldiers, gesturing on occasion to her. Eventually he motioned for her to come and speak with them, introducing them all as his platoon commanders and their sergeants, and said, 'These are the men responsible for your security, for the moment. I'm heading to a meeting with my superiors to discuss the recent developments. If you have any questions, they'll be more than happy to answer, and if they ask you to do something, please do it.'

'Okay,' Hikari said. 'And thank you, captain.'

'Don't thank me yet,' Ishida said. 'You're still not out of the woods.'

He left after that, climbing back into the car which sped off once he was seated, and Hikari turned to face the men tasked with ensuring her safety. They all looked back at her with neutral expressions, until one of them stepped forward and held his hand out.

'First Lieutenant Sato,' he said. 'I'm in charge of 1st Platoon, and the company whenever Captain Ishida is away. This is Sergeant Major Ito, my second in command.'

'The one actually in charge,' Ito said with a smirk as Hikari shook the lieutenant's hand.

'Not quite,' Sato said.

'But close enough,' Ito said, winking at Hikari. 'Shall I show you to your quarters, miss?'

'You have some ready?' Hikari said, surprised by that. It had been less than an hour since Ishida had made the decision to bring her under the JSDF's protection, and already they had somewhere for her to stay?

'We have an abundance of rooms available,' Ito said. 'Other countries send their troops here to get hands on experience fighting against Digimon, so it helps to have somewhere for them to stay. You'll be billeted in some of the officer's quarters. Nice enough rooms. Better than what us grunts get.'

He smiled despite the dour comment and escorted Hikari to the one hangar she hadn't been in yet, opening the door to reveal a tightly packed mess of dormitories filling the floor, and the space above. Most of the doors were labelled with the names of individual officers, and Hikari saw Ishida's room and then Daisuke's, but others were assigned to whole squads. She quickly peeked in one and saw a dozen cots lining the walls, each with a personal footlocker at the end of the bed. The décor was bland and impersonal, but then again the soldiers were only going to use the beds for sleeping.

Her own room was equally as plain, lacking any personal touches of any kind, but it was designed for a single person with only the one bed and contained a modest en suite that had everything she needed to get clean again. Someone had left a freshly laundered set of fatigues on the bed, neatly folded, and Ito told her that someone would swing by her home later to both explain the situation to her parents and collect some clothes.

'Dinner will be served at 1800 in the mess hall,' he added. 'Lights out by 2200, and reveille is at 0630, though we'll miss you out on the wake-up call. Any other issues or questions, just ask any of us. There'll be somebody around somewhere.'

Hikari thanked him and Ito left, leaving her alone in the room that was to be her home for the foreseeable future. It was barely bigger than her room at home, colder too, but she had slept in rougher during her time in the Digital World so it would more than suffice. She closed and locked the door, then stripped and stepped into the en suite's shower to have her first proper wash in almost four days.

When she came out, Hikari felt vaguely more human and stepped over to the bed to examine the clothes left behind for her. The pile consisted of trousers, a T-shirt and a jacket, plus underwear and boots, carefully folded with crisp, precise edges demanded by the military. It almost seemed a shame to ruin the hard work someone had obviously put into it, but she couldn't walk around the base in old clothes so Hikari dried off and dressed herself in the fatigues.

They were a size or so too big for her slender frame, even though they were probably the smallest size available, and she had to roll the sleeves and legs back enough for her hands and feet to poke through. Finished, she admired herself in a nearby mirror and couldn't help but laugh at the image. The T-shirt in particular looked like a tent on her with the neck hanging so low she could see both her collarbones and the straps of her bra.

She laughed again then transferred the contents of her pockets from one to the other and headed out, not wanting to spend the next few hours cooped up in her room until dinner was served. Besides, she reasoned, there had to be some kind of entertainment provided for the base's troops when they weren't on duty. A small recreation room of some kind, maybe with a television, or even a library. Failing that, she could just explore the hangars and see what went into maintaining an anti-Digimon unit of the Self Defence Force.

That probably interested her the most, to learn how regular people had adapted to the job of fighting against Digimon without a partner of their own, and especially the ones without access to heavy weapons or armoured vehicles with their cannons. She could remember the confidence the soldiers accompanying Daisuke held when they were facing down MagnaAngemon and Angewomon despite only carrying rifles. That kind of faith in something only came about when it was well placed.

Either that or she had just seen a collective show of bravado and all of them, other than Daisuke, were absolutely terrified to have only a rifle to defend themselves with.

It was probably for this reason that Hikari drifted into the mechanical hangar rather than exploring the barracks or the administrative centre, finding the same amount of tracked vehicles undergoing repairs and refits at the hands of greasy mechanics and technicians. She headed for the nearest, one with its turret removed and placed on a stand, and watched the team as they worked on the cannon.

'Hi,' she said, catching their attention.

One of them looked up and said, 'Hey. Hikari, right?'

'Yes,' she said. 'What are you doing?'

'Servicing the main weapon of this vehicle,' the mechanic said. 'Every three months, or ten-thousand rounds, and us grease monkeys get to go ripping into the guts of it to make sure everything is fine.'

'And is it?' Hikari asked.

'So far,' another mechanic said. 'These things are pretty solid, mechanically. We're more a formality required by the Great Military Bureaucracy.'

The others raised their hands and said, 'All hail the Great Military Bureaucracy,' in a monotone voice before dropping their hands and resuming work on the weapon. It was obviously some kind of in-joke between them all, and probably everyone else in the hangar given they didn't bat an eyelid at the sight, so Hikari chose not to comment on it. Instead, she asked about the gun and the vehicle it was mounted on.

'Not much to tell, really,' the first mechanic said. 'They're basically the Type 89 IFV, modified to counter Digimon. Less armour, less electronics, different munitions, but fundamentally you could send this thing into combat against regular forces and it'd be just as effective against them.'

'Less armour?' Hikari said, surprised. The lack of electronics she could understand given the adverse effects powerful Digimon could have on them, and the subsequent crippling of fighting ability, but not taking away the armour that kept the troops safe.

'Yeah,' the second mechanic said. 'You've seen how much damage Ultimate level Digimon can inflict, haven't you? The amount of armour needed to counter that, or to even make it so the troops inside survived, would make the vehicles unreasonably heavy. That means you'd have to spend time and money making a drivetrain system strong enough to cope, and accept that the ability to airlift these vehicles is severely reduced.

'It's just easier, logistically and mechanically, to focus on the cannon more than anything else. Even then, they just gave us a new type of shell to use with an explosive filling designed to hurt Digimon. Something about disrupting their ability to remain cohesive.'

'All we know,' a third mechanic said. 'is that it does the job. Don't really know the how, just the what.'

'I'm surprised they've managed to develop weapons that can counter Digimon so quickly,' Hikari said. 'And against Ultimate level ones, too.'

'Needs must,' the first mechanic said. 'Without these, we wouldn't be able to respond to as many attacks as we could in a single day, and Daisuke's workload would just about triple.'

'I thought he went up against all the attacks,' Hikari said.

'At first, yes,' the mechanic said. 'But nowadays, he usually handles between forty to fifty percent of the battles, usually the more dangerous ones. Still a lot, to be fair.'

'I guess,' Hikari said. She recalled her maths from the first meeting, how it came out to Daisuke tackling around eighty Digimon a day. Forty seemed a little better, but that still came out to one or two every hour, every day, plus travelling to and from those battles.

The mechanics stopped talking at that, going back to servicing the weapon, and Hikari took that as her cue to leave and find someone else to speak with, so she did, drifting to the back of the hangar where they tended to Daisuke's suit between outings. She found two soldiers sitting there, though to her surprise neither of them were Japanese. Both were westerners judging by their features, and they wore different camouflage patterns to the JSDF personnel she had seen so far.

In fact, they wore different patterns from one another, suggesting they were from different armies entirely. As she drew close, Hikari spotted the flags of the United Kingdom and the United States on their shoulders, though in subdued colours. Her first thought was that they were here to gain experience fighting against Digimon, only to dismiss that considering they were working away on computers rather than being out in the field, where the action was.

Nevertheless, she approached them and said hello, and both soldiers swivelled their chairs around to face her with the British one saying in Japanese, 'Ah, a new recruit. A little on the young side, but hey. More meat for the grinder.'

He grinned as the American sighed in exasperation.

'Ignore him,' he said, also in Japanese. 'I'm Zach, he's Mike, and I'm guessing you're Hikari, right?'

'Right,' she said. 'I'm just having a look around, seeing as how this is my home for now.'

'So I've heard,' Zach said. 'Well, come on in, I guess.'

He and Mike returned to their computers which were filled with walls of text and readouts Hikari couldn't even begin to comprehend, flashing by in rapid succession, and she stepped closer to them both. Unlike the rest of the hangar, their work space was clear of machine parts or oil stains that dominated everywhere else. In fact, the only real mess came from a slew of empty energy drink cans and food cartons sitting on their desks, indicating they had spent more than a few hours here.

'I'm surprised to see you here,' Hikari said. 'Are your units getting experience?'

'Nah, we've been here since this thing became multinational,' Mike said. 'Offering our services as computer analysts and coders. Plucked us right from our parent formations, too.'

'I ain't complaining,' Zach muttered. 'Fort Polk sucks ass.'

'Oh, you always say that,' Mike said.

'Yeah, because it's true!' Zach said. 'My recruitment officer told me, when I signed up, that if I ever got stationed at that shithole I'd never enlist again. And you know what, if I hadn't been reassigned here, I probably wouldn't have. That's how much Fort Polk sucks.'

It was odd that they chose to continue speaking in Japanese rather than switch to English for their brief argument, though Hikari figured they just didn't want to appear impolite in front of their guest by cutting her out of the conversation, even if briefly. Still, she was amazed at their mastery of the language to such a degree that they could fire back and forth as quickly as they had without pausing or stumbling over their words. Their grasp of Japanese certainly overshadowed her English by a wide margin.

'Did you help design the suit, then?' Hikari asked.

'Not the Mark I,' Mike said. 'The original, I mean. We came in after the Glitch reared its head and they started work on the second suit.'

'I still think we should have called that the Mark II,' Zach said. 'Not the Mark I again. We changed more than a few systems and features.'

'We didn't change all that much,' Mike said. 'Most of it was hardware tweaks. Now the Mark II, _that_ was a new model.'

'Should have been the Mark III,' Zach muttered quietly.

'See what I have to put up with?' Mike said to Hikari, gesturing with his head at the American as he continued staring at his screen and the data it held.

'No, you see what _I_ have to put up with?' Zach shot back. 'That suit should have been called the Mark fucking II, and you know it.'

'I don't,' Mike said, laughing. 'And neither did anyone else! You're the only one in the unit who calls it the Mark II, not Mark I, improved.'

Hikari couldn't help but laugh at the exchange between them, seeing that while Zach did sport an annoyed expression there was a faint hint of a smile. These two had probably grown close working alongside one another, maybe even bonding over the fact they were, as far as Hikari knew, the only westerners in the unit on a permanent basis.

'I'd probably go with Mark I, improved as well,' Hikari said. 'If all that was done were small adjustments to the suit.'

Zach let out a dismayed groan at hearing that and let his head sag forward as Mike laughed again and said, 'See? The only one.'

'I will find someone else,' Zach said. 'You hear me, Mike? I will find someone else to call it the Mark II.'

'Doubt it,' Mike said.

Hikari smiled at that and pulled up a nearby chair, placing it between and behind the pair so she could watch both their screens, asking, 'So what are you doing now?'

'Looking over the data coming in from Daisuke's suit,' Zach said.

'The Mark III suit,' Mike said, cutting in.

'The whatever,' Zach said, sighing. 'It's actually a pretty pointless job, because the suit records and intercepts such an absolutely massive amount of data there's too much for either of us to make sense of in real time.'

'Yeah, most of it gets checked over later,' Mike said. 'Piece by piece, for anything of value that might help tip things in our favour.'

'So why bother sitting here?' Hikari said. 'If there's too much data coming in to process, there's no point. Right?'

'Oh, there isn't,' Zach said. 'But the military is stupid and they believed us when we told them there was.'

'Why?' Hikari said.

'Because it's the closest thing we get to a day off,' Mike said. 'The suit pulls in terabytes of data each day, and even with two dozen techies we're still pulling sixteen- or eighteen-hour days analysing everything and using what we learn to further refine the design for the Mark IV.

'What Zach and I are doing, right here, is the closest we've had to a break in almost two weeks. We just sit here and pretend to watch data go flying past. Really, we're playing games or watching movies or reading books.'

'And napping,' Zach said. 'Can't forget about naptime.'

'As if I would,' Mike said. 'Tomorrow, we go back to checking out the information in more detail and two other guys will be here, watching 'data', and it'll be another two weeks before we get that chance again.'

'Daisuke does it without a break,' Hikari said.

'And we admire him for it,' Zach said. 'But Daisuke is an idiot. He's been told multiple times to stop and rest, by the captain and the company's medics and doctors. Does he? No, he carries on. He won't even stand down for a single day and spend all of it sleeping. Sooner or later, that shit's gonna catch up and kill him.'

'Either by his body just giving out,' Mike said. 'Or because he couldn't react quickly enough in combat. Human reaction time, on average, is a quarter of a second. Best we can get out of Daisuke now is a second.'

'So make him stand down,' Hikari said. 'You control his access to the suit, don't you? Just lock it up.'

'Oddly enough, the thought never occurred,' Zach said before shaking his head sadly. 'We tried, okay? We seriously tried to keep Daisuke away from the suit. We locked him up, we locked it up. We put codes on the doors and guards next to the keypads with explicit instructions.

'Somehow, every time, Daisuke found a way. And if he didn't, his link with the suit makes it come to him.'

'It can do that?' Hikari said, surprised that the suit was that advanced.

'Oh, yeah,' Mike said. 'There's a crude AI module built into the system, mostly as an aid for Daisuke in combat, that can handle some basic suit functions like walking and navigating. I've seen it break through concrete walls to unite with Daisuke because we weren't letting him out to fight.

'It sensed his distress and broke out to find him.'

'After a while, we just stopped trying,' Zach said. 'We still tell him to take a day, rest and recuperate, every time he turns up in the morning but that's it.'

'If you think you can do it better, then please,' Mike said as he and Zach both turned to look at Hikari. 'Please tell him to stop. He can't keep going on like this.'

Hikari looked at them both before dropping her gaze, saying, 'Daisuke won't listen to me. I don't think he wants anything to do with me.'

'That's too bad,' Zach said. 'We really like the guy.'

The conversation petered out after that, everyone's mood taking a downward turn, so Hikari left the two to their 'work' and went back into the barracks hangar, finding a small rec room after a few minutes of searching. A handful of soldiers were already present, dressed in casual attire, watching an anime about giant robots and explosions and plenty of stock footage, perching herself in a corner to join them until dinner was served.

A bell sounded for a short moment, and as one the soldiers rose from the sofas and settees and headed into the middle hangar, which had been transformed into a mess hall thanks to a series of metal tables filling the central area. The far end, which contained the communal kitchen, was similarly transformed by a row of stainless-steel carts that gave off copious amounts of steam. Cooks and stewards manned them all and had the seemingly never-ending task of heaping portion after portion of food onto waiting trays held by the soldiers as they queued up.

It was both a hectic but orderly scene, cramped but cosy, and the air was filled with light hearted chatter from the soldiers as they sat and ate, by squads and platoons it seemed, and Hikari joined the back of the queue. She looked out of place, despite her borrowed fatigues, but none of the soldiers so much as batted an eyelid at her presence amongst them. They seemed to just accept her as one of their own, or were polite enough to keep any gripes from her, and soon she was sat with First Lieutenant Sato and Sergeant Major Ito at their table, picking through the meal slopped onto her tray.

Neither of them had any news about her future beyond the immediate, nor did they know anything about Captain Ishida's meeting with his superiors, and they were professional enough to keep the idle speculation to a minimum. All they had to say on the matter was that her next port of call was most likely a base containing a battalion's worth of soldiers, maybe a full regiment, to ensure her safety until the Dark Ocean was dealt with, one way or the other.

Exactly how that be achieved, they didn't know, given the exact nature of their enemy there was a complete unknown. Intelligence estimates said that if Angewomon was able to drive off the shadowy creatures the last time Hikari visited the Dark Ocean, their power might be somewhere on par with that of a high level Champion Digimon, or a low level Ultimate, and their god could well match a top tier Ultimate or beyond, which could well be a problem if they stepped off before the Mark IV suit was completed.

The Mark III model Daisuke wore was reaching the limit of its effectiveness against the infected Digimon, all of which had steadily been growing in power with each passing day, and Sato confided in Hikari that some of Daisuke's recent battles were only won due to a mixture of luck and outside help, usually in the form of the troops accompanying him, though he admitted that it could also be a result of his deteriorating mental and physical state affecting his combat performance. Reaction times were down, critical thinking skills had taken a hit, and his resolve to get back into the fight after a hard blow seemed to be waning, too.

He didn't say anything more on the topic but Hikari could guess at the dark thoughts hidden behind his furrowed brow, recalling Mike's opinion on what Daisuke's ultimate fate would be if he didn't stop pushing himself quite so hard.

Her already bleak mood wasn't helped any by that and she ate the rest of her meal without really tasting it, returning the now empty tray to a washing station and heading back with the other soldiers to the rec room where they resumed watching the anime. More soldiers piled in and occupied the empty spaces, and brought with them an apparently ongoing debate between themselves if the underlying message of the show, that of casting aside all weapons of war and embracing true pacificism, was really achievable.

Some thought so, some didn't, and they snarled and bickered with one another so much Hikari had to wonder if anyone was actually watching the show anymore. Eventually the arguing became too annoying and distracting, so she slipped out and headed back for her empty room. Somebody had been in at some point and left a duffle bag on the bed containing her clothes from home, plus a few personal items should she want to make the room feel a little more welcoming.

Hikari gave a faint smile at seeing her own clothes, all of them stark contrasts to the fatigues she wore presently, and set aside the bag for later. She sat down in the space it had created and pulled out her phone, seeing a bunch of text messages and missed calls from the others. It struck her as strange that she hadn't heard them coming in, only to remember her phone was still in silent mode after her hospital visit and the vibrate function was nothing to shout about.

She spent the next fifteen minutes responding to everyone, including a ten-minute call to her parents to assure them everything was okay, that she was in safe hands, and that as soon as it was safe to do so she'd be coming home. One of Ishida's soldiers had explained the situation as best he could to them, but sometimes parents just needed to hear it directly from their kids they were safe. They'd be coming over sometime tomorrow along with Taichi, Agumon and Gatomon, to see her properly.

With that done, Hikari dumped her phone on the bed beside her and lay back, staring up at the cheap wooden ceiling of her room for an indeterminate amount of time until her eyelids began to feel heavy, the events of the day catching up to her, only to snap them open and sit up as somebody knocked on her door.

They knocked again as Hikari stood and crossed over, hauling the door open to see Takeru stood beyond it with one hand raised to rap his knuckles against the now missing door and the other down by his side, holding a plastic bag. Her arms were quick in wrapping around her boyfriend and squeezing him tightly, feeling the worries of the day ebbing away to almost nothing as his free arm came up and hugged her back.

'I've missed you too,' Takeru said softly as Hikari pulled him into her room, using his foot to shut the door behind him. 'How are you feeling?'

'Better for seeing you,' Hikari said. 'How did you get here?'

'I asked,' Takeru said as he and Hikari parted to sit side by side on the bed, intertwining his fingers with hers. 'I think Captain Ishida has put us on some kind of approved access list, following your relocation here. They barely stopped me from coming in.'

'That was nice of him,' Hikari said. 'And it's great to see you, Takeru. It feels like forever.'

Takeru smiled. 'I know.'

He reached into his bag and brought out a cheap bottle of wine, two plastic cups and an assortment of chocolates, also cheap. It was hardly the most romantic meal but right now, in her room, Hikari was thankful for it and she wasted no time in pouring herself and Takeru some of the wine as he unboxed the chocolates, revealing plain brown squares that they took turns feeding to one another between sips of wine.

Soon enough, the chocolates were gone and the wine forgotten, both teens sharing kisses and fondling each other until Takeru stopped and rested his forehead against Hikari's, saying, 'You look good in that T-shirt, Hikari. Better than I thought you would.'

'I laughed when I saw myself in it,' Hikari said.

'Yeah?' Takeru said with a soft chuckle.

'Yeah,' Hikari breathed.

'I think it would look better on the floor, though,' Takeru said.

Hikari laughed and stood with that, in front of Takeru, and pulled her borrowed T-shirt up and over her head to expose the pale flesh of her chest, and the plain white bra she wore. Takeru gazed at the sight before him with awe, like he always did when Hikari undressed in front of him, and a faint smile like he couldn't believe his luck she was his girlfriend. She gave him an impish smile and said, 'Anything else?'

As it turned out, _every_thing else.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Hikari awoke, still feeling the afterglow of the night before and maybe a little thick headed from the wine, and felt the reassuring weight of Takeru's arm around her back as he held her close despite being sound asleep and snoring ever so gently. Their clothes were strewn about the room with reckless abandon, surrounding the mattress both teens were lying atop, itself on the floor given they couldn't trust the steel frame of the army cot could endure such strenuous activity as a young couple making passionate love.

She gave a content sigh and closed her eyes, hoping to drift back to sleep, listening to the world outside. There was the general clamour of people moving about and talking, the soldiers of the base rousing themselves for another day of defending the world from infected Digimon, and a constant rat-a-tat of rain on metal, giving her an idea of what the weather for today was going to be. Hikari sighed again and found her resolve to move and leave this cosy situation wane even more.

To get up meant having to face the dreary reality that the Dark Ocean was coming for her, that the world would soon be engulfed in conflict with it, that her once close group of friends was breaking apart, and that the only other DigiDestined on the base had spent the previous night with monsters rather than the one they loved.

Here she was happy and warm and lying with somebody very special to her, without worry or concern, so she tuned everything out and drifted back to sleep. When she came to again, the sounds of the soldiers had vanished and all she was left with was the constant patter of rain bouncing off a metal wall above her. It could have only been fifteen minutes, or an hour. Without a watch or clock there was no way of telling.

'Hey,' she heard Takeru breathe. 'You're awake.'

'Yeah,' Hikari said with a sigh, stretching out and curling up. 'I'm glad you decided to visit. I needed that.'

'We both did,' Takeru said. 'Ever since we found out about Daisuke… It's good to unwind after all that stress.'

'Yeah,' Hikari said again.

She sat up and looked over Takeru's body, a fit and toned example as befitting an athlete, and smiled.

'What did I ever do to deserve you?' she said.

'Be a shining light,' Takeru said. 'A beautiful, shining light that embodies all that's good in this world.'

Hikari smiled again and moved to straddle her boyfriend, leaning down to kiss him on the lips as his hands reached up to caress her back before slowly shifting down to her hips. With only a slight movement he made them one, and for the next few minutes they made frantic, passionate love before collapsing, breathless, next to one another and stared up at the ceiling, their chests heaving in and out from the exertion.

Takeru was the first to rise, staggering on weak knees to the en suite and emerging a few minutes later ahead of dressing himself in yesterday's clothes, and replaced the mattress and bedding on the frame as he waited for Hikari to do the same. She decided against wearing her new fatigues and picked out something from the duffle bag, the familiar scent of home a welcome change, and she and Takeru walked hand in hand to the middle hangar.

It looked as though they had missed breakfast judging by the lack of tables and stainless-steel carts overflowing with steam and food, but the kitchen at the back of the room was still in operation so they walked up to it in the hopes that some kind of food was available. There wasn't, just snacks and hot drinks, but a cook came out of an adjacent room as they sorted through the cupboards.

'Ah, you're awake at last,' he said. 'Don't worry, we've set some aside for you.'

'Oh, thank you,' Hikari said.

A few minutes later, they were sat at one of the small tables in the kitchen area and being served a plate of what Takeru recalled as being a full English, or a heaping portion of bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, toast, mushrooms and hash browns, plus copious amounts of tea and coffee. It looked a tough challenge to take on, even though both were ravenous after this morning and the night before.

The cook, when he saw the expressions of the two teens, smiled and said, 'A habit we picked up during our time deployed in Britain. They served this every day in their messes, and it became quite popular with our troops. Enough so it became part of our weekly rotation. Next week we're shifting to American style, and the week after that Russia.'

Then his smile faded. 'Well, it's popular with the troops that have survived since then.'

He bustled off into the kitchen, leaving Hikari and Takeru to dwell on that sombre reminder so many others had died fighting the infected Digimon, and then they became keenly aware of their hungry bodies and started in on the vast plates of food with barely a word said between them. As they ate, soldiers from the base came in, usually in small groups of two or three, to make themselves a hot drink from the kitchen and then stand around and chat as they drank. Either they were on an extended break or whatever jobs they had to do weren't critical.

In fact, Hikari had no idea what the soldiers actually did when they were on shift, or deployment, or whatever, when they were on base. She knew what the technicians in the workshop hangar did, and what Zach and Mike and the other analysts did, but not the rank and file troops that walked around in their camouflage fatigues and bulletproof vests, and had a pistol on their leg and a rifle slung over their shoulder.

Did they just endlessly patrol the perimeter of the base, keeping would-be intruders out, or did they have other tasks to attend to?

She stared at one of the closest, a young kid who couldn't have been much older than Taichi or Yamato, as he spoke and laughed with another man, one in his mid-twenties. Both carried a pistol in a leg holster and wore vests covered in pouches that contained spare magazines and grenades. They looked heavy but neither man seemed concerned by the weight, carrying it easily and hardly making a sound as they moved.

It struck her as odd that people so young were being entrusted with something so vital as the defence of Japan against outside threats, but she reminded herself that the Digital World had selected children, two of them as young as eight, to fight against powerful forces of evil. At the same time, she thought back to the tally marks on the fighting vehicles and the cook's recent comment and couldn't help but despair over the fact that so many young lives were lost because of her lack of action.

'They had their whole lives in front of them,' Hikari said softly as she continued to watch the two soldiers. 'And now they're gone.'

She turned back to her half-eaten breakfast, her appetite fading, and set the knife and fork down. Takeru, who was still eating, looked up and said, 'What did you say?'

'I said, they had their whole lives in front of them,' Hikari repeated, louder this time. 'All those young men who died taking up arms against the infected Digimon because we didn't. They had their whole lives to live and now they won't get a chance to, because of us.'

Takeru stopped eating as well and set his cutlery down, moving his head to look at all of the camouflaged figures surrounding them and paying particular attention to the scars and old injuries most of them seemed to carry. Guilt quickly swept onto his face and he looked down at the food on his plate, away from the troops, for a long minute before looking back up and taking hold of Hikari's hand.

'We'll make it up to them,' he said. 'We're not just sitting by any more. Koushiro's looking into the data Captain Ishida's providing, on the infection and whatever else they collect, and he'll come up with an answer for us that'll help solve everything. Just like before.'

She smiled in response to that but Hikari couldn't help but feel it was a forced smile, knowing that Captain Ishida had access to a hundred times the manpower of Koushiro, and being part of a multinational taskforce aimed at combatting the Digimon he could call upon the best the entire planet had to offer. Zach and Mike were proof of that, coming from England and America solely to help process data and refine the design of Daisuke's suit. As good as Koushiro was, he was just one person.

'Are you sure you won't fight with us, when the time comes?' Takeru asked.

'I'm sure,' Hikari said with a nod. 'I don't want to see Gatomon turned into the Dark Ocean's weapon, used to subjugate the world. Unless it can be guaranteed that she won't…'

Hikari trailed off and shook her head emphatically, adding, 'I won't fight.'

Takeru could only nod, mostly in resignation. They had had this discussion several times before over her decision to stay out of the fighting, and each time Hikari had remained steadfast in her decision to avoid sending Gatomon into the fray. It would break her heart to see her partner turning her power on those she was supposed to protect, and if Veemon really hadn't turned up at Primary Village yet then there was a very real chance that if she was destroyed, by Daisuke or the JSDF, then Gatomon would be gone forever.

But if staying off the frontlines meant they could stay together, then Hikari would take that chance and spend the rest of her life trying to repay the debt she owed to those that had made such an outcome possible.

She let out a short sigh and tried to eat the rest of her breakfast, picking at the food without actually eating it before pushing the plate away entirely and sat, quietly, lost in her own thoughts and ruminations until the PA system came on again to announce the arrival of Daisuke, or Sierra-1 as the disembodied voice called him.

Some of the soldiers snapped their heads up at the announcement and downed their drinks in a single gulp, moving off outside to greet him, but most acted as if they hadn't heard it and carried on talking and drinking between themselves.

'Have you seen him yet?' Takeru asked Hikari as a steward swung by and collected their plates, disappearing back into the room.

'Not since they brought me here,' she said. 'And even then, he was hanging in the air above me. We didn't say anything to each other.'

'Do you have any idea what you might say if he comes in here?' Takeru said.

'No,' Hikari said, lowering her gaze. 'The last time we spoke, he didn't seem too happy to see me. Ken and Miyako, sure, but not me.'

Her boyfriend nodded but said nothing, and they drank their tea in silence until a door opened further down the hangar and Daisuke stepped out of it, or more accurately shuffled, appearing thinner and smaller than Hikari recalled. The dark circles under his eyes were even more pronounced, looking like bruises, and the already loose clothes seemed to just hang off his frame.

'Oh, my god,' Takeru breathed upon catching sight of their friend, taken aback by the visage of a zombie staggering their way. 'He's really bad, isn't he?'

Hikari could only nod, averting her gaze and back to the table before her, not wanting to look upon her handiwork any more, who either didn't see or didn't register their presence in the kitchen as he made his way to the kitchen for a drink, or food, and soon enough the soldiers were standing between them as they greeted Daisuke back, laughing and joking with him. Oddly, it had the effect of perking him up a little if the sound of his raspy laughter was any indicator, throwing jabs back, or maybe that was just coffee talking.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of Takeru who rose from the table and made his way through the mass of soldiers to reach Daisuke, Hikari watching him go, and she fully expected there to be a strained but cordial meeting between the two. But, the moment Daisuke caught sight of the blonde teen his expression changed from jovial yet exhausted to murderous rage, his eyes lighting up with unbridled fury, and he lunged for Takeru.

It was only luck or chance that his mug of coffee went flying to the floor where it shattered and disgorged its scalding contents harmlessly rather than in Takeru's face, but the rest of Daisuke was still potentially damaging as he reached out and grabbed Takeru's top with one hand and swung for the side of his head with the other. A weak blow, it still snapped Takeru's head to the side and he staggered back a second before his own instincts kicked in, throwing a punch back, but in the time it took him to do that the soldiers around the two teens were moving with lightning quickness.

Three grabbed Daisuke and hauled him backwards whilst another four grabbed Takeru and forced him away. Even though he was fit and well built, Takeru was no match for the muscle mass or training of the men holding him, and Daisuke simply lacked the physique to put up anything more than token resistance against the strong hands holding him.

'You bastard!' Daisuke screamed at Takeru, the fire in his eyes still burning. 'You bastard, where the fuck were you? What the fuck did you do? Nothing, you son of a bitch! I'll kill you!'

He struggled all the way to a nearby room another soldier had opened up, his three captors bundling him inside and following him in. The door slammed shut behind them and clicked as it was locked, and still they could hear Daisuke as he cursed out Takeru and threatened to kill him. The teen in question was still struggling against the four soldiers holding him, shouting back, until he calmed down upon realising this wasn't a fight he could win.

So he dumped himself back down in his seat and probed the part of his face Daisuke had struck. A medic hurried over and took over, ascertaining there was no major damage done, and handed Takeru an ice pack which he sullenly held against the wounded area.

'What the hell is his problem?' Takeru said. 'All I wanted to do was say hello, and see how he was doing. Why'd he have to hit me like that?'

'Adverse reaction to prolonged sleep deprivation,' the medic said. 'He's just come off a straight forty-eight-hour deployment. Aggressive or violent behaviour is a side effect of lack of sleep, and it's been a long time since Daisuke's gotten any.'

'But why'd he hit me?' Takeru said.

The medic just shrugged noncommittally, so in his stead Hikari said, 'He feels betrayed by us.'

'Betrayed?' Takeru said. 'Why?'

'Because we didn't look for him,' Hikari said. 'None of us did.'

'We did,' Takeru said. 'I remember, clearly, that we went looking.'

'We went to Ken's apartment,' Hikari said. 'And knocked on the door, and sent messages and emails to the others, but only _after_ we thought we saw Ken as the Digimon Emperor again.'

She stopped, not wanting to get into this with Takeru right now, though she knew it had to happen sooner or later and she had already started down that path, so Hikari spent the best part of ten minutes recounting what Miyako had told her during her visit, of the IAA's surveillance records showing than not one of the original DigiDestined had showed the slightest bit of concern regarding the disappearance of four of their own in a crisis, how that had invariably turned Ken, Miyako and Iori against them, and how it was this exact thing that had likely made Daisuke agree to pilot the suit in the first place.

Like her brother, Takeru listened to everything with disbelief on his face, confident in his recollection of events that he had, in fact, done more than lip service when it came to looking for his friends. And, like Taichi, he was certain Hikari was the one misremembering events.

'How can you be so sure?' Hikari asked him.

'Other than trusting my memory?' Takeru said. 'It's the most likely explanation. Look, does not trying to find our friends sound like anything you or me or any of us do?'

'No,' Hikari said quietly.

'So we would have looked for them,' Takeru said. 'Right?'

'I guess,' Hikari said. 'It's just, I can't really remember putting that much effort into actually _looking_ for them, or anyone else pushing themselves.'

Takeru seemed to grow exasperated by her persistence but he retained a calm, level tone as he said, 'We looked for them, Hikari. I'm sure of it.'

'But those files…' Hikari said.

'Don't mean anything,' Takeru said. 'They could be forgeries for all we know, designed to drive us apart.'

'They're from the IAA,' Hikari said.

'That's where Captain Ishida _claimed_ they were from,' Takeru said, lowering his voice. 'Have you actually seen the files?'

'No,' Hikari said again.

'Then how can you be sure that's where they're from?'

She didn't, and once again Hikari found herself beginning to doubt things. Takeru was right in that they would have gone off in search of their friends the moment they went missing, especially during such a vital time, even if she couldn't really remember exactly what they had done. Eight people couldn't all be wrong, could they?

But at the same time, she had to question exactly what Captain Ishida would gain from having the DigiDestined fractured at this moment in time. He had explicitly stated he only wanted them to keep out of the infected Digimon situation, and even then it was just to keep the enemy from getting their hands on such a large amount of incredibly powerful Digimon. They were free to pursue whatever leads they found, so long as they acknowledged the incumbent risks that came with it and, if they felt generous, shared their discoveries with the JSDF.

It was a stretch to believe that the captain was so against the DigiDestined involving themselves that he or someone under his command would compile tens of thousands of pages of falsified surveillance reports, and then store it, on the off chance that somebody wished to know what had happened during those three months. Sure, Captain Ishida had mentioned the military had plans for everything, but even that seemed excessive.

Then there was Miyako, and Ken, and Iori. All three of them had worked their way through the reports and documents, seen and held them all, and come away fully believing them to be authentic and an accurate representation of what their friends had done during their imprisonment. None of them were what you might call dim witted or easily fooled, far from it in Hikari's opinion, so she felt she could trust in their judgement on the veracity of the files.

In fact, they would have wanted the files to be faked. Nobody wanted to learn that their close friends and allies just didn't care about them. They would have entered that room already convinced the documents were fakes and Hikari's confession was simply interference from the Dark Ocean. And yet, they had come out convinced, and in turn that was enough for Hikari.

She explained all this to Takeru who listened intently, nodding occasionally, but shook his head when she finished.

'Then they have to be wrong,' he said. 'They have to be.'

'Why?' Hikari said. 'Because there are more people saying otherwise?'

'Yeah,' Takeru said. 'I know what I did, so does everyone else. I don't care what those stupid files say, or what Captain Ishida says. They're wrong.'

Hikari's brow furrowed into a frown as she stared at Takeru before gesturing at the soldiers around them that had slowly dispersed and gone back to relaxing, saying, 'And if everyone here said the sky was green with pink polka dots, but you said it was blue, would they be right because there's more of them?'

'No,' Takeru shot back with a raised voice.

'Then why are Miyako and the others in the wrong because they claim we did something else?' Hikari said, her own tone growing increasingly harsh. 'In fact, it's not the three of them against the eight of us. It's all those government agents that observed us, too. Who knows how many dozens of them there were.'

'Because I know what I did!' Takeru all but yelled, rising rapidly from his chair and drawing the eye of everyone in the hangar. He blinked and took notice of them all, and quickly sat back down again with one hand on the side of his head in a futile attempt to block them all out. More than that, Hikari couldn't help but notice a trill of fear sweep across his face. 'Can we not do this?'

'Do what?' Hikari said.

'Fight,' Takeru said in a low voice. 'Not now.'

'They don't care,' Hikari said, waving at the soldiers who had resumed their private conversations.

'I don't want to have a fight,' Takeru said but in a bare whisper, and again Hikari saw a tremor of fear on his face.

It took her a second to remember that his parents had divorced when he was very young and, no matter how much they might have tried to hide it, Takeru had probably seen them bicker and fight in the lead up to their parting. He had never really spoken about it with anyone, not even her, but it must have left him with some trauma that was slow in healing if he didn't want to get into a confrontation with her now. This might have actually been their first proper fight as a couple, other than the occasional disagreement over some trivial thing, and the more Hikari thought about that fact the more she realised that in every situation, Takeru had always quickly submitted to her will.

Was he so worried about going through the same thing as his parents that he was willing to admit defeat at the slightest indication of a fight?

For a fleeting moment, Hikari felt a sharp sense of disgust for the boy sitting across from her at his attitude, if not cowardice, in the face of an argument. More than that, she couldn't help but wonder what effect this might have on their relationship. After all, she had found herself drawn to Takeru for his personal strength and seemingly indefatigable resolve, but if his immediate reaction when presented with a quarrel was to wave the white flag almost immediately then was he really the same person?

As soon as her disgust for Takeru had come, it went away and Hikari reached out to take hold of his hand but Takeru drew it back, placing both hands in his lap as he stared down at the empty table before him.

'I don't want to have a fight,' he repeated softly.

Without another word, he stood and headed for the hangar door even as Hikari called out for him to stop and stay, though she halted herself from uttering some kind of apology. She was confident in her beliefs, and it wouldn't help Takeru in the slightest to reward his submissiveness towards her by making out she didn't want to fight with him. She really didn't, but she knew from her own parents that arguments and disagreements were very much a part of their lives. How else would they reach compromises that benefitted both parties?

Just one person making all the decisions wasn't a relationship, or it was a controlling and abusive one, and that wasn't what Hikari wanted.

So she let him go and resigned herself to sitting alone at the table, feeling isolated despite the dozen or more soldiers surrounding her, as a soft sigh escaped her lips.

_And today started off so well_, Hikari thought to herself morosely.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

A mass of white fur greeted Hikari when she opened the door to her room, the impact knocking her back a step or two, but she was quick to recover and quicker still to wrap her arms around Gatomon and hold her close.

'You're not going anywhere without me again,' Gatomon said. 'Not while the Dark Ocean's after you.'

'It's good to see you too, Gatomon,' Hikari said, holding the cat Digimon at arm's length to take her in after almost a week of being apart. As expected, nothing had changed, and she felt her spirits lift at finally being reunited with her partner.

Behind her, she spotted Taichi, Agumon and her parents stood just beyond the door, awaiting an invitation to enter which Hikari was quick to offer. Soon, she was hugging them all and offering reassurances everything was fine with her, though she left out the part of her and Takeru's argument earlier that day. He hadn't responded to any of her calls or texts, and Hikari couldn't help but wonder if or when he was going to respond.

She sat down on the bed and pushed the worry from her head, her mother sitting beside her, and started trying to explain what had happened to her. The soldier that had picked up her clothes had spoken with her parents, and Taichi would have added his explanation, but she had the first hand knowledge of the events, at least from her perspective, so she could fill in the blanks the others had missed out.

It took the better part of fifteen minutes to go over everything and once she finished, Hikari lapsed into silence and awaited whatever questions her parents might have. Taichi knew plenty of this already, or had enough experience with the Digital World and its quirks to fill in some of the blanks, so Hikari didn't expect too many to come from him.

Her mother was the first to speak up, asking, 'Are you safe here?'

'As safe as anywhere else,' Hikari said with a shrug. 'The troops here are experienced at fighting Digimon, even the Ultimate ones the Dark Ocean has infected. There's talk of moving me to a bigger base with more troops, but I won't know more until Captain Ishida returns.'

'Can't Gatomon protect you better?' her father asked.

'Normally,' Hikari said, casting her gaze downwards. 'But this isn't a normal situation.'

Even Gatomon had to drop her gaze at that, her ears drooping, and said, 'The Dark Ocean can infect Digimon and turn them into puppets. If I become Angewomon or even Magnadramon, it'll try to take over and use me against everyone else. Then they'll be forced to destroy me.'

'And there's a good chance she won't come back,' Hikari whispered, clutching Gatomon closer.

'There must be something you can do to stop that,' her father said.

'We're looking into it, dad,' Taichi said. 'But we're not having much luck. Nothing Koushiro comes up with seems to work, no matter how many different things he tries. Our Digimon can be infected at any minute.'

'But you're still willing to stand up against them,' their mother said. 'If your sister is right, you might lose Agumon forever.'

'Because that's what being a DigiDestined means,' Taichi said. 'Every fight could be the one where I lose Agumon forever. I'm not going to shy away from any of them, because it's my duty to protect others.'

He glanced at Hikari as he spoke and narrowed his eyes slightly, expressing his still ongoing displeasure at her insistence of avoiding the fight, but Hikari pretended she didn't see it and stroked Gatomon's fur.

'There's more than one way of protecting people,' she said. 'Other than fighting.'

'I'm not really one for sitting idly by,' Taichi said.

Hikari had to bite her tongue at that comment, given how for the past two years he and everyone else had done exactly that. Meiko had occupied most of his free time, even though they definitely weren't boyfriend and girlfriend, not fulfilling his duty as a DigiDestined. She felt her brow furrow in irritation, which in turn earned her a glare from Taichi when he noticed it.

'No arguing,' her mother said, sensing the growing tension. 'We're here to spend time together as a family, not bicker over who's in the right when it comes to being a DigiDestined. Both of you are free to do it however you want, and you'll respect one another's decision, or so help me I'll make you'll wish MaloMyotismon had come back.'

'But, mom-' Taichi tried, only to be cut off.

'No buts, mister,' she said. 'You live under my roof, and you'll do as I say. Am I clear?'

'Yeah, mom,' Taichi said, turning away from the scolding.

Hikari suppressed a giggle and caught her mother's eye, who gave her a sly wink as Taichi pouted then said, 'So why don't you give us a tour of your new home? I need to know if it's good enough for my daughter to stay at.'

'It's great if you can get over some of the people who work here,' Taichi muttered under his breath in reference to Captain Ishida, arms folded across his chest, but nobody seemed to hear him other than Hikari who duly ignored him.

She quickly stood and, with her family in tow, went on a tour of the base once more to discover everything it had to offer. Nothing had changed since yesterday, or nothing that Hikari was able to pick up on, and she pointed out everything she could remember to the others. Her parents seemed happy with it, taking solace apparently in the hundred or so armed troops patrolling the base and their tracked vehicles, and even Taichi had to show some interest in learning about how regular folk adapted to combat powerful beings like Digimon.

How happy would they be if they knew the amount of troops stationed here was barely enough to counter only a single Ultimate level Digimon, or that the Dark Ocean had access to three-thousand of them to send her way? Even if Hikari could call upon Gatomon to protect her, sheer numbers would eventually overwhelm whatever defences Captain Ishida's company could put into place, assuming that they didn't snatch her whilst everyone was otherwise engaged.

This she kept from them, not wanting to burden her family with any extra stress, and eventually they wound up in the mechanical hangar where Hikari immediately gravitated to the back, to the spot Daisuke's suit was maintained and two technicians spent one day in fourteen doing nothing. As expected, the westerners were nowhere to be see and in their place was a pair of Japanese soldiers who barely even glanced up from their 'work' at the arrival of the Yagami family.

This was another thing Hikari kept from her parents and brother for much the same reasons, instead giving her mother and father a rundown on how the suits came to be and how this, in turn, led to Daisuke being the only one who could pilot them.

'Has Koushiro been able to figure out what caused the program to latch onto Daisuke?' Hikari asked Taichi midway through her explanation.

'No,' he said with a shake of the head. 'Not yet. But, there's a lot of coding for him to work through and he isn't finished yet. He might find the reason in due time.'

'That's good,' Hikari said. 'It'd be nice for him to have some backup in a fight.'

'He could have backup in a fight,' Taichi said. 'Us.'

'Nothing's stopping you from joining him yourself,' Hikari said. 'After all, you do want to fight. Right?'

'Yeah, but that officer jerk won't let me,' Taichi said, crossing his arms across his chest.

'Not true,' a voice said from behind them, belonging to the soldier in question. 'I simply advised you of the potential consequences if Agumon becomes infected. You're free to ignore that advice and fight anyway. The only one stopping you right now is you. Not me.'

Captain Ishida seemed to just materialise some way behind them, striding up to Hikari and her family quickly and silently, as though summoned by Taichi's grousing about him. He had changed out of his civilian attire back into his camouflaged fatigues, a pistol strapped to his thigh, and the two technicians scrambled to stand at attention and salute when they heard him. Ishida saluted back and allowed them to go back to their screens, returning his attention to the four civilians and their two Digimon.

'Mr and Mrs Yagami,' he said, bowing slightly as he spoke to Hikari's parents. 'I'm Captain Ishida, of the JSDF. I hope everything you've seen so far meets with your approval.'

'We don't have any major issues,' Hikari's mother said, waving him off. 'It does seem a little basic here, I must admit, when it comes to amenities.'

Ishida offered a faint smile. 'Unfortunately, a base has to be host to a colonel or above before they give you a budget for creature comforts. My troops have to fork over their own cash to buy anything nice, though we'll be moving Hikari to a much larger, much nicer base within the next few days.'

'Is she not safe here?' her father asked.

'Yes,' Ishida said. 'But given her strategic importance, having too many troops around her can't be a bad thing, can it?'

'I suppose not,' her father said.

'Then don't worry,' Ishida said as his smile increased. 'We're doing everything possible to ensure your daughter's safety.'

Her father smiled back and placed a hand on Hikari's shoulder as he said, 'A father never stops worrying about his daughter, no matter what she does.'

'I suppose not,' Ishida said, nodding, then gestured for everyone to follow him. 'I've spoken with the cooks about preparing an early lunch for everyone, assuming you're hungry, or just refreshments if you're not, and I can answer any other questions you might have about Hikari's security arrangements.'

'Food would be nice,' Gatomon said as she looked up at the officer with her big, blue eyes, pleading with him, to which the officer nodded.

He led them back outside for the brief journey into the central hangar where a single table had been set up at the far end, plus a single steel counter on which a selection of sandwich meats and drinks were laid out. Everyone queued up despite being the only ones in the hangar and made up a plate of whatever they wanted, sitting down in three separate groups. Taichi and Agumon had one end of the table, and the biggest piles of food, which they were tucking into with barely contained gusto.

In the middle was Captain Ishida and Hikari's parents, casually discussing what arrangements had been made and what plans were in place should an attack occur over more reasonable piles of food, with Hikari and Gatomon occupying the other end of the table.

Of course, in a display of her innate feline attributes, Gatomon had filled her tray with tuna, salmon and chicken, and had a bowl of milk to drink, and was eating it with more decorum than Agumon was, who seemed to be competing with Taichi for who could either finish their food first or just create a bigger mess.

'I can't believe I'm related to him,' Hikari said as she watched the spectacle.

'Just hope your kids don't take after their uncle,' Gatomon said. 'Otherwise you'll never stop cleaning up after them.'

'Now there's a scary thought,' Hikari said, laughing. 'And if they do, I don't think I'd want any.'

'Then you and Takeru should probably think about using protection,' Gatomon said in a sotto voice so her parents wouldn't hear. 'Given how often you two are together.'

Hikari had the misfortune to be in the process of swallowing a mouthful of food when her partner said that, causing her to choke on it, and she quickly started pounding her chest to clear the blockage as she reached for her drink to help wash it down. All eyes swivelled to her as she coughed and sucked in a lungful of air when her throat was clear, waving off their concerns, then drew Gatomon near.

'Don't say things like that,' she half whispered, half hissed at the Digimon. 'Not in front of my parents, and not Taichi.'

'I'm just saying,' Gatomon said back. 'I know they adore Takeru and all, but I don't think they're ready to be grandparents or an uncle just yet.'

A crimson blush swept across Hikari's face and she was thankful she had been choking only a few seconds ago, her face already flush with colour, but it was soon fading as she thought about the idea of having kids with Takeru some more. If his behaviour earlier in the day was any indication, then their relationship might not make it to the point where they were ready to have kids. She didn't want to be with someone that just blindly agreed to whatever decision she made. She wanted to be with someone that could think and choose for themselves, and had courage enough to speak up for themselves.

She hoped what had happened this morning was little more than a one off, or if it wasn't then she hoped she could speak with Takeru about it in an attempt to assuage any fears or worries he might hold.

'Is something wrong?' Gatomon asked, noting the change in her partner's demeanour at the mention of the teen.

'Takeru and I had our first fight this morning,' Hikari said lowly.

'So? Couples fight,' Gatomon said. 'I've seen your parents argue no end of times, and they're still happy together.'

'It's not that we had a fight, Gatomon,' Hikari said with a sigh. 'It's what Takeru did during it.'

'He didn't call you something insulting, did he?' Gatomon said as she stood up, claws flexing. 'Because if he did, I'll turn him into my new scratching post for you.'

'No,' Hikari said. 'No, nothing like that. He didn't call me anything, or shout at me, or hit me, either. In fact, we barely even got into the argument.'

'So what did he do?' Gatomon asked.

'Nothing,' Hikari said. 'We started to argue, voices were raised on both sides, and then he just stopped and sat down and said he didn't want to fight, and he acted like he was really afraid of us having a proper argument.'

'He did?' Gatomon said. 'That's weird.'

'I know,' Hikari said. She paused a moment then launched into her theory that his parents' divorce had left some psychological scarring on Takeru, and ended with her worries about what impact it might have on their relationship.

'I want to be with him,' she said. 'I love Takeru with all my heart, and I really do see us having a future together, but I want him to be an active member of our relationship. I don't want it to be all me.'

'So make it happen,' Gatomon said. 'Sit Takeru down and talk to him about this morning, and tell him everything you told me. If he wants this relationship to work, he'll put just as much effort in as you.'

'Oddly enough, that's what I had in mind already,' Hikari said with a smile.

'And that's why we're partners,' Gatomon said.

Hikari laughed as her smile grew slightly, petting the Digimon on the head, and they returned to their neglected meals. Along from her, Captain Ishida was pantomiming something out for her parents using condiment packages and cutlery, a battle maybe, and next to them Taichi and Agumon had started on round two of their competition, whatever it was. She caught sight of a steward watching them with immense displeasure at the mess being created, and when they locked eyes Hikari mimed an apology before suppressing a laugh when the steward showed her two mops and two buckets, lying in wait.

Groans soon followed from her brother and his partner when they finally called an end to their competition and the steward walked over, dumping the cleaning equipment down beside them before they had a chance to gather themselves after gorging on so much food. Her mother further motivated them with a stern look, prompting a comment from Captain Ishida jokingly asking if she could work her magic on some of his more stubborn troops given how quickly Taichi and Agumon jumped into their assigned task.

It took them several long minutes to finish, considering how each time they said they were done the steward would find some patch that had slipped their notice and he'd make them start all over again until at last it met with his approval, allowing them to scurry after the rest of the group as they left the hangar and went back outside to the tarmac apron where a half dozen tracked vehicles stood guard, with twenty or thirty soldiers milling around them.

'Yes, I think this meets with my approval, captain,' Hikari's mother said as they stood and observed the troops, doing whatever it was they were doing.

'I'm glad it does,' Ishida said. 'Once the last few details are finalised, we'll move Hikari to the next base and forward you the necessary paperwork and ID forms to allow you access. That way, you'll be free to come and visit whenever you please, though certain areas of that base will be considered off limits to you all. Is that understood?'

'Of course,' her father said.

'Do you really have to leave so soon?' Hikari asked as they began moving towards a waiting car parked nearby, a soldier at the wheel with the engine running. 'It feels like you only just got here.'

'I'm afraid so,' her mother said, ruffling the hair on top of her head. 'But don't worry. We'll come visit you every few days, and we're always on the other end of a phone if you really need us.'

'Okay,' Hikari said.

She hugged her mother and father, one after the other, and they hugged her back tightly, and then it was Taichi's turn, and then they were gone, leaving Hikari alone on the tarmac with Captain Ishida standing beside her and Gatomon in her arms.

'Guess it's just you and me now, huh?' she said to the Digimon, who nodded in response.

'Yeah,' Gatomon said.

Hikari heaved a great sigh and turned to Ishida, saying, 'Captain, is there anything I can do on base to help out? I think I'd go stir crazy if all I did all day was watch anime and read books.'

'Nothing springs immediately to mind,' Ishida said after a moment's contemplation. 'Most of the work done on base tends to lean towards requiring extensive knowledge in specialised fields, and what doesn't need special training basically amounts to keeping this place clean, and the troops fed.'

'So long as it has a purpose,' Hikari said. 'I want to feel like I'm doing something _useful_.'

It was Ishida's turn to sigh and think before shrugging.

'I'll check in with the department heads and see if any of them could do with a spare body,' he said. 'But there's no guarantees any of them will get back to me with good news, or in time before your relocation.'

'At this point, I'll take anything,' Hikari said.

'Famous last words,' Ishida said. 'Especially on a military base.'

'I don't care,' Hikari said.

Ishida winced. 'That's even worse.'

But he shrugged and nodded and made a promise to ask his subordinates if they had any work going, and in the meantime he suggested that if she wanted, Hikari could go an examine the previous iterations of the suit Daisuke had worn. It hadn't escaped his notice she always seemed to gravitate towards that particular section of the hangar every time she went wandering, so they had to hold some amount of interest for her, and with the Mark III currently in use almost twenty-four hours a day the older models were the only way she could see one up close outside of combat.

They were kept close by in case they were ever needed again, or the technicians wanted to test out some new software patch designed to let someone other than Daisuke use the suits. If nothing else, it could kill half an hour or more, provided one of the techs were nearby and able to answer any questions she might have.

Not having anything else better to do, Hikari set out to do just that.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

The room had all the charm of a crypt, being cramped and dimly lit, and the three empty suits looked like strange, futuristic sarcophaguses for fallen warriors lined up next to one another. Cables and wires fed into various ports on them and trailed across the floor, and Hikari took great care to avoid tripping over one as she stepped closer to the suits of powered armour. Gatomon jumped from her arms and landed before the middle suit, the improved variant of the Mark I if Hikari had to guess, and gave it a sniff.

'It smells kind of like a Digimon,' she said. 'Just faintly.'

'Well, Captain Ishida did say they used materials from the Digital World to make it,' Hikari said. 'So I guess that'd make sense.'

'Yeah,' Gatomon said.

Hikari took another few steps closer to the suit and ran her hand gently across the armoured surface, finding it smooth and cool to the touch, until she came across a rough carving on the upper left chest. It was hard to make out in the dim light but it felt like either a V or an X, and a moment later Hikari realised it was both, an homage to the second Digimon Daisuke ever had to kill and the one that probably haunted him the most.

The other suits had similar carvings in roughly the same locations, the only blemishes on otherwise immaculate gunmetal grey armour, which meant there was one on the Mark III as well and there would be one on the Mark IV, whenever that came online.

She took her hand away and stepped back to observe all three suits in turn, noting the various design changes made with each upgrade done. As expected, the two iterations of the Mark I were almost exactly alike with the improved model being slightly sleeker, slightly thicker, and bore a striking resemblance to another suit of armour, one from a film, but the exact franchise seemed to elude Hikari as she looked at the suits.

Then, it came to her and she said, 'They look like stormtroopers.'

'They look like what?' Gatomon said.

'The suits,' Hikari said, pointing at the first two. 'They look like stormtroopers from Star Wars.'

'Clones,' an irate voice said from behind them, making the duo jump and turn around to see a technician standing in the doorway. 'They look like clone troopers.'

He reached out without looking and flipped the light switch, bathing the room in yellow light, and gestured at the Mark I and its successor.

'There's a difference?' Hikari said.

'Yes,' the technician said. 'Stormtroopers were the soldiers of the Galactic Empire, made up of human conscripts, and the clone troopers were the elite troops of the Grand Army of the Republic, cloned from the bounty hunter Jango Fett.'

Both Hikari and Gatomon just stared at the technician once he finished, his eyes still on them and glaring, right up until he cringed and shook his head and said, 'Sorry, I've just spent the past two years hanging around the team that designed these suits. They get _really_ passionate whenever someone refers to the Mark Is as being stormtroopers. It rubs off on you after a while.'

He entered the room proper to stand beside Hikari as she turned and peered up at the black T-shaped visor of the Mark I suit, saying, 'To think, the fate of the world was once in the hands of a clone trooper. We're just lucky nobody told Daisuke to execute Order 66.'

The technician chuckled at his joke, which was completely lost on Hikari and Gatomon, before pointing at the Mark II.

'That one they modelled after the suit from some upcoming game,' he said. 'What was it called, again? Crysis?'

'I don't know,' Hikari said with a shrug. 'My brother might know. He's into videogames.'

'Whatever it is,' the technician said. 'That's what they based the design around. Bunch of freaking nerds.'

'You're not exactly filling me with confidence about our chances,' Gatomon said as she scaled the Mark II and perched herself on its shoulder. 'Not if the best the world has to offer used videogames and movies as inspiration for these suits.'

'I think they did all right,' the technician said. 'Daisuke's still alive, isn't he? And the suits managed to perform their jobs well enough, didn't they?'

'That's hardly the point,' Gatomon said. 'We're still entrusting our fate in something that's a recreation of a fictional suit of armour.'

'More inspired by,' the technician said. 'And mostly in the helmet, as well. Some compromises have to be made to make these suits work as intended.'

He wandered over to a corner and picked up a dusty ring binder lying on a shelf, flipping it open and flicking through the papers contained within before stopping on the one he apparently wanted, showing it to Hikari and Gatomon. It was a full colour picture of a suit worn by the stormtroopers in Star Wars, or whatever they were called, shown from the front, sides and back, and looking between them and the Mark Is it was easy to see what the technician meant by their design only being inspired by these iconic fictional suits rather than a direct recreation.

The helmets did indeed bear the most resemblance to the stark white suits, mainly the T-shape of the visor, and perhaps the front of the chest piece and the legs, but the back and forearms had been radically redesigned to accommodate the rear thrusters and lasers. And, of course, the suit's colour was metallic grey rather than brilliant white. It was the same with the Mark II when they turned the page, of the helmet sharing the most similarities with the source material next to everything else.

'Do I even want to know what game they looked to for inspiration with the Mark III?' Gatomon asked dryly.

'Halo,' the technician said, turning the page again. 'The first one, actually, and I hear they're sticking with the franchise for the Mark IV, too.'

The cat Digimon could only groan at hearing that and Hikari had to agree, not liking the revelation herself, but at the same time she couldn't deny the suits had indeed served their purpose well. Daisuke was still alive and the infected Digimon were still being defeated, and if the trend continued then she could find herself willing to put up with whatever eccentricities the design team had.

But still…

She shook her head as the technician snapped the folder shut and replaced it, leaning casually against the wall beside it as he looked at Hikari and Gatomon, likely awaiting whatever other questions they had about the suits. They certainly had some, about their capabilities and the details behind their construction, but another one entirely entered Hikari's head.

'Can I try one on?' she said.

It took the technician by surprise, and herself to a small degree, but he just shrugged and nodded and moved towards the Mark II. With a flick of some small button, he caused the back of the suit to open and unfold enough to allow a human operator to enter, which is exactly what Hikari did.

The inside of the suit had a sharp smell of metal with an undercurrent of stale sweat, a testament to the thousands of hours Daisuke had spent within it, and soon she was smelling her own bodywash as the armour closed around her, sealing her from the outside world. For a fleeting moment, claustrophobia tugged at Hikari when she tried to move her arms and found they wouldn't respond, coming up against an immovable shell, and her vision dropped away to nothing. Then, the room faded into view as the suit's visor opened up.

Gatomon was standing before her on the floor, staring up at the thin strip for a visor with a look of concern on her face, and behind her was the technician with his back to them both as he typed in something at a wall mounted computer terminal.

'All right,' he said. 'We'll do a partial system start up. No weapons, no propulsion, nothing beyond bringing the operating system online. It should come online and register you as a user, then reject you because you're not Daisuke. That's how this usually plays out.'

'Okay,' Hikari said.

'Initiating system start… now,' the technician said, tapping the enter key on his keyboard.

He turned to watch the suit as Hikari heard a faint click come from somewhere, then a faint hum and whine as the electronic components of the suit came online and started spooling up. Lines of code raced past Hikari's vision as the system booted up before fading away and leaving her sight clear once more. At least, it did for a scant second. Additional lines followed, though slow enough for Hikari to actually read and recognise them as being part of some kind of diagnostic report.

SUIT ONLINE/TEST MODE

POWER SYSTEM/OFFLINE – EXTERNAL SUPPLY

POWER ABSORPTION SYSTEM/OFFLINE – TEST MODE

WEAPON SYSTEM/OFFLINE – TEST MODE

PROPULSION SYSTEM/OFFLINE – TEST MODE

AUTO REPAIR SYSTEM/OFFLINE – TEST MODE

SUIT INTEGRITY/100%

SYSTEM NOMINAL

USER DETECTED/AUTHENTICATING

What happened next felt akin to a gentle pulse sweeping from the front of her head to the back, followed by a momentary bout of vertigo, as the suit did whatever it did when authenticating a user and Hikari did her best to shake her head to clear it, but the suit was still immobile and refused to budge in the slightest. All she managed to do was strain her neck a little and watch as the words INVALID USER/DENIED appeared on the visor before her as the suit came to the conclusion she wasn't Daisuke.

The lines vanished and all Hikari was left with was the sight of Gatomon and the technician watching her, unable to move or do anything.

'Figures,' the technician said, shrugging, and he span around to tap in a shutdown command on his computer.

The visor shut again and the sense of claustrophobia came back to Hikari when it did, and stopped as the suit unfolded around her and released its grasp. She took a few shaky steps back and braced herself against the wall as the Mark II sealed itself up again and powered down, ready to continue waiting for Daisuke to come by and use it once more. She breathed in the musty air of the storage room to clear it of the scent of Daisuke's sweat then reunited with Gatomon and the technician on the other side of the three suits.

'And here I thought having a DigiDestined try donning it would do the trick,' the technician said. 'Guess not.'

'Did you expect anything spectacular to happen?' Hikari asked.

'Kind of,' the technician said. 'Up until now, we've only ever put regular soldiers and GIs inside the suit, not fully blown DigiDestined like yourselves. A popular theory was that it might unlock the suit for others to use, but now we know otherwise.'

He shrugged noncommittally and that was the end of that. Hikari had no other questions for him about the suits so she scooped Gatomon up off the floor and left the room, leaving the technician to turn off the lights and close the door, drifting back to her borrowed quarters to sit on the bed. She pulled out her phone and dialled Takeru's number but he didn't answer, so she left a voicemail asking him to call her back, then Hikari flopped backwards and lay staring up at the ceiling as the silence of the hangar turned barracks filled her ears.

'Why did you want to try the suit on?' Gatomon asked, breaking it.

'Because,' Hikari said. 'Like the technician said, maybe having another DigiDestined wear it might do something. I want to help out.'

'Is that the only reason?' Gatomon said.

'No,' Hikari said.

She sat up again and shifted her attention to the floor below her feet, elbows resting on her knees, saying, 'I wanted to see if having me _specifically_ triggered anything. The suits are supposed to be a new kind of Digimon, almost, and being bonded with Daisuke I figured it might have picked up some of his traits. You know, like how Veemon had a crush on you.'

'What were you expecting to happen?' Gatomon said.

'Anything, really,' Hikari said. 'Just… some kind of a reaction to having me wearing it.'

'But nothing happened,' Gatomon said. 'So either the suit's not enough of a Digimon to do anything like that, or Daisuke doesn't have any feelings for you anymore.'

'Yeah,' Hikari said quietly, recalling the harsh tones he had used when speaking to her last, or the deathly glare he had thrown her way, a far cry from how he had once looked and spoken to her.

She gave a soft sigh and picked Gatomon up, holding her closely, lamenting the apparent loss of a once close friend due solely to her own actions and seemingly self-serving memory. Worse, the rest of the DigiDestined had splintered because of her and now they had three or four distinct factions. Would they ever be able to recover from it, she wondered. Part of her hoped so, but another part had doubts.

Another sigh, more resigned than before, escaped Hikari's lips as she slipped into a limbo state that the silence of the barracks only added to, losing all sense of the world around her, and it took Gatomon calling her name and shaking her shoulder to bring her out of it. She shook her head and blinked and looked down at the Digimon, saying, 'What?'

'Daisuke's coming back,' Gatomon said. 'They just made the announcement.'

'Already?' Hikari said. She pulled out her phone to check the time, and was astounded to see it was only half past four in the afternoon. Had she spaced out for that long?

'Yeah,' Gatomon said. 'Do you want to go see him?'

'I don't think he wants to see me, though,' Hikari said.

'Maybe,' Gatomon. 'But it couldn't hurt for him to see you waiting for him, could it?'

'I guess,' Hikari said.

She nodded and lethargically got to her feet, feeling her joints creak and pop in protest after so long of inactivity, and with Gatomon still in her arms she made her way outside to the tarmac apron where a dozen soldiers stood waiting, Captain Ishida amongst them. Worryingly, all of them bore concerned looks on their faces and when Hikari turned her gaze in the same direction of theirs, she saw why.

A thick trail of black smoke followed the speck that was Daisuke as he flew to the base, dropping lower and lower with each passing minute until he was barely clear of the neighbouring buildings, and he didn't so much land gracefully as he did crash onto the ground in a great shower of sparks and screeching metal. Up close Hikari could see that his suit had taken a serious beating, worse than before, and smoke continued to pour out of the various cracks in the armour plating and the thruster units on his back.

The soldiers rushed forward once Daisuke was down and stopped, straining against the weight of the suit to haul him upright, and half carried him into the mechanical hangar which had its great doors already open and waiting to receive them. Hikari hurried after them and watched as the Mark III released its hold on Daisuke who slumped dumbly to the floor, covered in a mess of bruises and welts, until a trio of medics made themselves known and took him away from everything.

Hikari watched him go before making her way over to Captain Ishida as he spoke with two of his subordinates, his face a grim mask at being told bad news.

'It's going to be offline for at least ten hours,' said the first soldier, glancing at a PDA. 'The auto-repair function needs that long to bring everything back up to meet minimum combat requirements. Longer still to return to full capacity.'

'How long is that?' Ishida said.

'Twenty-four hours,' the soldier said. 'That battle did a number on the Mark III, sir. It's not rated to handle four Ultimate Digimon all at once. Structural integrity is down to 33%, and that's the least damaged component. The weapons are offline, propulsion was barely enough to maintain flight, and it was losing power at a rate of-'

'Save the damage report for later,' Ishida said, waving him off. 'I just wanted to know how long it was going to take.'

'Between ten and twenty-four hours, sir,' the soldier said. 'That's the best I can offer.'

'Great,' Ishida said with a groan before turning to the second soldier. 'How are we looking from your end?'

'Slightly better, sir,' the other soldier said. 'The spike in cases over the past few days is something we've seen before, and if the pattern repeats here then we should be now seeing a large downturn in the number of infected Digimon.'

'Enough that we can do without Daisuke?' Ishida said.

'Yes, sir,' the soldier said, but he still seemed apprehensive over something.

'What is it?' Ishida said. 'Now's not the time to be withholding potentially vital information.'

'Yes, sir,' the soldier said, nodding. 'It's just… As far as we could tell, there was only going to be _one_ Ultimate level Digimon at that battle, not four. We detected a single energy spike concurrent with a Champion digivolving to Ultimate, not four.'

'So those other three Digimon just appeared out of nowhere?' Ishida said.

'That's what it looks like, sir,' the soldier said. 'None of the other units mentioned having a target depart their battle space and take off in Daisuke's direction, and neither did we detect any spikes heading his way.

'The only conclusion we can come to is that they came from the Dark Ocean.'

'That's worrying,' Ishida said. 'And here I thought they'd be coming for Hikari.'

'In all likelihood, they still are,' the soldier said, subtly glancing at the girl in question as she lingered nearby. 'Daisuke represents the biggest threat to their plans, however, and taking him out would be the most logical first step in accomplishing that.'

Ishida glanced over his shoulder at Hikari, a neutral look on his face, then turned back to the soldiers.

'Agreed,' he said. 'All right, head back to your departments. If anything changes, for better or worse, I want to know about it. I'll contact Nerima and update them on our situation. It's going to be a tense twenty-four hours.'

The two soldiers snapped to attention and saluted, then span on their heels and hurried off to their tasks to leave Hikari and Gatomon alone with Ishida, who finally turned to face her full on with his impassive expression.

'This way,' he said, gesturing for Hikari to follow him out of the hangar into the relative peace of the outside world. 'Things have taken a turn, in case you missed it.'

'I heard,' Hikari said as she followed the officer. 'Do you really think the Dark Ocean is going to start targeting Daisuke now?'

'Possibly,' Ishida said. 'Strategically, he _is_ the biggest threat they face in the long run. We're about the roll out the Mark IV in a few weeks, giving him the ability to fight on par with Mega levels, and they can't infect him like they would a Digimon.

'But at the same time, we can always replace Daisuke should he die and rebuild the suits if they're destroyed. Really, they _should_ be gunning for you with everything they've got and taking you somewhere we, as yet, lack the ability to reach. But they haven't.'

'And what does that mean?' Gatomon asked.

Ishida looked at the Digimon and shrugged. 'Truthfully, there's so much we don't know about the Dark Ocean that we can barely be certain of what their ultimate goals are. Maybe they have to achieve victory under certain conditions to ensure it lasts, or they're just trying to keep us guessing and reacting to them rather than seizing the initiative.

'Or, they screwed the pooch today and that trio of Digimon was supposed to be coming here, but ended up crossing paths with Daisuke instead. Without any solid intelligence it's impossible to be sure of anything.'

'There's a comforting thought,' Hikari said.

'Yeah,' Ishida said. 'I'm none too happy about it, either.'

He blew out a resigned breath and rubbed the back of his neck, a grimace on his face, then shook his head and waved Hikari and Gatomon off as he headed for the middle hangar, where his office was situated. They watched him go for a moment before making tracks for their room in the far hangar which still felt empty and silent with only two people occupying it, and Hikari spent the better part of an hour talking with Miyako on the phone about everything that had transpired today, from her fight with Takeru and her reunion with her parents, and then the return of Daisuke after being ambushed.

She would have preferred to speak with her best friend face to face but Miyako was over an hour away, if not more given the roads would be rammed with people heading home from work, so over the phone was the best she was going to get right now.

Hikari ended the call after promising to have a proper get together with Miyako once she'd finished her relocation to the new base, tossing her phone down onto the bed beside her to experience once again how silent the hangar was. It wasn't just that there were no human sounds coming from the soldiers as they relaxed in the rec room or cleaned their dormitories, there were no sounds of the outside world period. No rumble of traffic, or rustling of the wind, or chirping of birds. It was as though beyond the four walls of her room there was nothing.

It had the unwanted effect of making her feel absolutely isolated and alone, despite Gatomon curled up next to her, and the urge to talk with someone else reared its head. The only problem was that she wanted to speak with someone in person, not over the phone, and there weren't all that many people who could fill that criteria right now.

Gatomon was the first candidate that sprang to mind but they had more or less spent the entire day together, so Hikari discarded her as an option. She dismissed Captain Ishida out of hand too, given he was probably up to his neck in paperwork and calls with his superiors, and she vetoed most of the other soldiers as well for much the same reasons. They all had their jobs to do and none of them needed a teenage girl to come along and distract them with conversation.

That left only one real candidate for her to speak with, though their relationship as late wasn't exactly a welcoming one that invited casual conversation between the two. Even so, it wouldn't hurt to at least try and reach out to him, maybe start making inroads on rebuilding what she had broken.

'I'm going to see Daisuke,' Hikari said as she stood up, waking Gatomon from her nap.

'Do you think he wants to see you?' Gatomon said, fixing a bleary eye on her partner.

'Probably not,' Hikari said. 'But I have to at least try and show him I want to make up for everything I've done, right?'

'I guess so,' Gatomon said. She stretched out and added, 'Do you want me to come with you?'

'No, thanks,' Hikari said, shaking her head. 'I think it'd be better if it was just the two of us.'

'Okay,' Gatomon said. 'I'll see you when you get back.'

'Hopefully not too soon,' Hikari said as she tried to affix a brave smile onto her face, finding herself dreading the prospect of actually going to see Daisuke.

He had, after all, made it perfectly clear how poorly he thought of her during their last encounter and she had no doubts that his current state might exacerbate his feelings, for better or for worse. But, she would do well to follow both his example and that of Taichi's of being courageous in the face of adversity.

With that in mind Hikari left her room and headed for Daisuke's, encountering no other soldiers along the way. They were probably all still hard at work doing whatever it was they did, like fixing the suit or analysing the data it had pulled in, and for a brief moment she wondered if Daisuke would actually be in his room. The medics had rushed him off somewhere to assess his wounds, and who knew how long that actually took.

Then she saw the faint glow of light coming from beneath his door and heard the faint creak of someone sitting in a chair and knew Daisuke was home, for lack of a better term, so Hikari approached his door and gently knocked on it.

'Daisuke?' she called out. 'It's Hikari. I was wondering if we could talk a little.'

About what though, she had no idea. Her planning hadn't gotten that far, most of her fully expecting Daisuke to either ignore her or tell her to leave him alone before they could even get to the point where they were talking to one another.

To her great surprise he didn't send her away immediately or ignore her, but got up out of his chair and shuffled to the door which he cracked open, staring at her through the small gap he had created. Even through a small sliver like that, Hikari could see a variety of emotions on his face, first and foremost of which was disdain, obviously, but so too was mild surprise and maybe even an undercurrent of anticipation.

'You're early,' he said.

'I am?' Hikari said. Up until a few minutes ago, she hadn't even known herself she was coming here. How had Daisuke known?

'Yeah,' Daisuke said. 'But whatever. Come in.'

He pushed the door open and stepped back, allowing Hikari entry, and she quickly moved past him into the room. Like hers it was sparsely decorated with minimal personal touches beyond a few items from home and some other souvenirs acquired after two years of travelling the globe, and her eyes were drawn to a single framed photo sitting atop the bedside cabinet. It was of Daisuke and Veemon, side by side, dirty and sweaty but smiling, and she quickly recognised it as the same group photo she had in her scrapbook from when they were rebuilding the Digital World.

Daisuke had cropped everyone else out of it beyond him and Veemon and blown up what remained, losing some of the quality in the process, but the bond between them was still recognisable. She heard the door shut and began turning to face Daisuke, still at a loss about what to talk about, but all thoughts pertaining to having a conversation were abruptly discarded when she found Daisuke's lips pressing up against hers, his tongue worming its way into her mouth, as one hand took firm hold of the back of her head whilst the other groped her breast.

Her reaction was immediate and Hikari jerked her head away from Daisuke in shock and horror, her hands coming up to try and part their bodies, but only partially succeeded. Despite his slight, malnourished frame Daisuke still retained a great deal of strength that, for now, was enough to overpower whatever resistance Hikari could muster.

'What the hell are you doing?' she shouted him.

'Taking what I'm owed,' he rasped back as his hand continued to work at her breast, clumsily caressing it in a way that was anything _but_ pleasing.

'What you're owed?' Hikari said, trying to push him off her again. 'Daisuke, what the hell are you talking about?'

'You know exactly what I mean,' he growled at her. 'Choosing that blonde pretty boy even after you strung me along for all those years. I'm taking everything I'm owed from you, and more.'

He tried to kiss her again and Hikari caught the scent of whiskey on his breath, and the glazed look in his eyes, and quickly realised he was more than a little drunk right now. She tried to pull away but again, his body was stronger than it looked and soon their lips were meeting for another passionless kiss. Then, his hand left her breast and began creeping downwards for the waist of her jeans.

Knowing where his fingers intended to travel, Hikari violently jerked her hips away from Daisuke's and managed to break free from his hold at last. Except, he was standing between her and the room's only exit, and he seemed livid with her.

'Stop struggling,' he said. 'You're not supposed to fight back this much.'

He lunged for her and they grappled in the middle of the room, he trying to get a firm grip on Hikari and she trying to escape from Daisuke, and for a split second it seemed like she was going to come out on top. Adrenaline was flooding into her system and giving her body a much-needed boost of strength, enough to overcome Daisuke, and escape seemed like a very real possibly. Right up until Daisuke dodged behind her and used some kind of technique that knocked her off balance, and pushed her towards the room's desk.

The next thing Hikari knew, Daisuke had her bent over it with one hand keeping her head flat against the wooden surface and the other forcing her arm up her back, almost to the point it felt like he was going to pop it out of the socket. Then she felt him sprawl on top of her, his mouth inches from her ear, and Hikari whimpered and shivered as she heard his ragged breathing.

'The more you fight, the more painful it'll be,' he said. 'And the longer it'll take. So just give me what should have been mine all those years ago, and it'll all be over.'

She could only whimper again in response, tears streaming from her eyes at the pain coming from her in shoulder and the terror of being assaulted so by someone she had once considered a friend. It couldn't be happening. It just couldn't. She refused to believe that Daisuke was seriously considering raping her, right here and now. This had to be some kind of cruel practical joke, a sadistic means of getting back at her for all the misery she had caused him that had gone too far. It had to be.

And yet, Daisuke showed no sign of ceasing his assault on her body. The hand that had been keeping Hikari's head down shifted to fumble with the top button of her jeans again, struggling for a few seconds until it accomplished its task and started on the others, popping them off one by one like some grotesque and macabre countdown, and then his fingers were groping the outsides of her underwear.

Hikari tried to throw Daisuke off again but all it did was make her shoulder burn with pain as he twisted it some more and she quickly stopped, letting out faint cries as he pulled her jeans down and his hand ran up and down the bare flesh of her legs.

'That's more like it,' he said in a hoarse whisper. 'Just let it happen. Maybe you'll even enjoy it.'

'Please,' she whimpered back. 'Please, Daisuke. Stop it. Please. Whatever I did, I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry.'

'It's too late for sorry,' Daisuke grunted.

She felt him struggle with the belt, button and fly of his own trousers and before long, Hikari could feel his erection pushing up against her backside with the only thing standing between it and its ultimate goal was her underwear. Daisuke gave a perverse moan of satisfaction as he went back to touching the insides of her thighs, the tips of his fingers slowly but surely climbing higher and higher, and a sudden thought struck Hikari startling clarity.

Daisuke intended to rape her.

This was no joke, or prank, or means of getting even. He had long since passed the point where he should have stopped and kicked her out of the door, mortified and traumatised but otherwise intact. He fully intended to carry out this attack on her, regardless of the consequences it would carry.

A terror unlike anything else Hikari had felt before, more than even when they had faced down MaloMyotismon, swept across her and made her body turn cold. With that feeling came a second, larger surge of adrenaline into her trembling, half naked body that gave the strength necessary to hurl Daisuke off her and back several paces.

He staggered and fell to the floor, tumbling on the trousers down around his ankles, and the back of his head slammed into the metal frame of his bed with a resounding clunk. His whole body went slack with that but Hikari didn't see this, orientating herself onto the door, and ran for it as best she could whilst trying to pull her own jeans up.

Sadly, much Daisuke, she tripped over them and found herself flying towards something hard and unyielding as a result. The only saving grace was that it was a door that opened outward, and a cheaply installed one at that. Her shoulder slammed into it and Hikari felt something go crack, followed by an immense wave of pain, but the door burst open and deposited her into the corridor beyond. Unfortunately, she kept on going and the door opposite rushed up to meet her.

She met it head on and everything went dark.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

For the second time in less than a week, harsh light flooded into Hikari's eyes when she cracked them open. A sharp, throbbing pain soon followed and she squeezed them shut again until the discomfort had subsided, trying again more slowly this time until the blinding light faded and resolved itself into a single bulb and bland ceiling tiles. She was quick to deduce she was in a hospital again, though she couldn't quite recall for what. Her memory was hazy, for the moment, and the best Hikari could dredge up was that she had fallen for some reason and slammed into a door head first.

That seemed to concur with a dull ache coming from her forehead and when she reached up with a shaky arm, she found a dressing fixed into place over a very tender feeling patch of skin that she was certain now held a spectacular bruise. Hikari groaned and let her arm fall back into place, only to hiss in pain when she tried to move the other. Fire spread out from the shoulder and discouraged any further movement, even something as simple as flexing her fingers, and Hikari complied as best she could to avoid exacerbating the wound more.

_What happened to me?_ Hikari wondered, her memory still foggy as to the specific circumstances that had led to her injuries.

She struggled to remember anything more than just barging into a door but only got a blurry image of a room and a shadowy, almost demonic figure looming over her. Had the Dark Ocean tried to take her again?

Another groan escaped her lips and Hikari gave up on trying to remember. The pain medication she was on and the resultant neurological trauma from a head wound meant it could be a long, long time before she was able to say for certain what had happened to her. Besides, someone had brought her here to this hospital so they probably had some kind of idea about what she had done to herself.

'Ah, you're awake,' a soft voice called from the opposite end of the room, a kindly looking doctor in surgical scrubs hovering by the door. 'That's a good sign.'

'Where am I?' Hikari murmured, her own voice little more than a rasp.

'You're in a hospital,' the doctor said. 'A military one, I might add, which makes your presence here most unusual.'

'The army…' Hikari began. 'The army's… looking after me.'

'Yes, Captain Ishida explained the situation to me,' the doctor said, smiling. 'Don't worry. You're in safe hands here.'

'What happened to me?' Hikari said. 'I remember hitting a door with my head…'

'Two doors, actually,' the doctor said as he stepped closer, picking up a clipboard hanging from the edge of the bed and reading the contents. 'Which resulted in a luxation between the scapula and humerus on the left side, and a linear fracture of the frontal bone of your cranium, which in turn led to a mild traumatic brain injury and loss of consciousness.'

'What?' Hikari said.

The doctor smiled again. 'You dislocated your left shoulder and cracked your skull, and suffered a concussion that knocked you out. In layman's terms, at least.'

'How did I fall into two doors?' Hikari asked.

'That I don't know,' the doctor said. 'All the good captain would say is that he found you lying in a hallway, unconscious, and brought you straight here for treatment.'

'Am I going to be okay?' Hikari said.

'Certainly,' the doctor said. 'We popped your joint back into place without complication, and the fracture is only an inch long at most. Both are going to hurt for a few days and you'll have to wear a sling, but that's it. As for the concussion, it might take upwards of four weeks to fully clear given your age and you'll have to avoid certain concentration heavy activities, like reading or schoolwork, and get plenty of rest.'

'I think I can manage that,' Hikari said.

The doctor smiled. 'Excellent. In that case, I expect a full recovery in no time.'

He made some annotations on the clipboard and replaced it, then adjusted some of the numbers on the IV machine feeding its contents into Hikari's arm, and left. He was soon replaced by Captain Ishida who remained near the threshold of the room, looking uneasy, which set off alarm bells in Hikari's head from the word go.

'Can I speak with you?' Ishida asked.

'Of course, captain,' Hikari said, nodding weakly at the room's sole chair.

'Thank you,' Ishida said. He stepped into the room but declined the chair, hovering between it and the bed. 'The doctors tell me you'll make a full recovery.'

'They told me that as well,' Hikari said. 'But that's assuming I can actually get the rest they're advising. Something tells me I won't be so lucky.'

'No,' Ishida said. He hesitated then sat down on the chair but he didn't seem too relaxed, perching himself on the very edge and clasping both hands before him. 'Hikari, what can you remember about how you suffered these injuries?'

'Not much,' she said. 'I think I was in a room somewhere, and there was this dark figure in there with me, and then…'

She trailed off and struggled to recall anything else, bits of information popping back into place randomly as she did. It had been a room on the base and she had gone there to speak with the occupant, or maybe it had been her room and someone had come to talk with her? No, it was definitely somebody else's room and she had specifically gone to talk with them about something. About what, though? And how had it ended up with her dislocating her shoulder?

Then it came flooding back to her all at once.

The room had been Daisuke's and she had gone to see if he wanted to talk, only for him to try and force himself onto her the moment the door was shut. She recalled his hand as it groped her breast and tried to explore somewhere else, and how he had bent her over a desk and pulled down her jeans whilst twisting her arm behind her back, and the terror that had gripped her very soul upon feeling his erection pressing up against her exposed backside.

She was soon crying and wailing as the trauma of being assaulted in such a terrible manner by someone she had once considered a close friend and ally reared its head again. As much as he seemed to hate her, Hikari could never bring herself to think Daisuke would actually carry out such a vile act against her, much less anyone else. And yet, he had come very close to accomplishing his goal.

'Daisuke tried to rape me!' she cried at Ishida, who was watching her with a grim expression. 'How could he do that? How could he even think of raping me?'

'It's… complicated,' Ishida said quietly. 'Which isn't what you want to hear right now, but that's the truth.'

'You're right it's not what I want to hear!' Hikari shouted. 'Someone I thought was a friend attacked me!'

'I know,' Ishida said, holding his hands up. 'But please, let me try and explain it.'

'Oh, please do,' Hikari shot at him, her anguish giving way to anger in the face of somebody she had taken a liking to trying to defend such a reprehensible act.

Ishida was silent for a moment, gathering himself, then said, 'There's no way of saying this without sounding crass, so I'll just come out with it. Daisuke mistook you for a hooker.'

For a long minute, Hikari said nothing. She couldn't be sure if the concussion was messing with her hearing, or if it was causing some kind of hallucination, but it certainly sounded like Ishida had told her Daisuke thought she was a hooker. She shook her head and blinked several times, and said, 'He what?'

'He thought you were a hooker,' Ishida said. 'Specifically, this woman.'

He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small, leather bound book, flipping it open to the page he wanted and holding it out to Hikari. She saw a polaroid photo of a young woman, somewhere in her mid-twenties, that looked almost identical to herself. Her hair was a little longer, and her bust a little larger, but they could have easily been mistaken for sisters. Or, one another in a dimly lit room by somebody that was drunk.

Suddenly a lot of what Daisuke had said made a little more sense.

'Her name is Saori Amaki,' Ishida continued. 'She's a call girl that, for lack of a better term, specialises in rape fantasy services. Daisuke hired her last night.'

'So he did want to rape me,' Hikari said. 'He just chose to pretend someone else was me to do it.'

Ishida made a face but shrugged.

'Objectively, yes,' he said after a moment. 'That was his intention.'

'Then it's not that complicated,' Hikari said. 'He wanted to rape me. That's the end of it.'

'He's wanted to do a lot of other things with you, as well,' Ishida said as he began flicking through the book, showing Hikari dozens more women who all bore a resemblance to her across several different nationalities. With each, he gave a rundown of what fantasy Daisuke had indulged in with them.

'With this one, it was just sex,' Ishida started. 'With her, she played the part of a girlfriend. Her, she simply acted like a close friend who listened to him. He had this one kneel and apologise before giving him a blow job. And, of course, Saori and the rape fantasy.'

He closed the book and leant back, glancing away from Hikari, who tried to process this information. All those women and scenarios, all of them involving her, all of it at odds with the disdainful attitude Daisuke had shown her recently. It just didn't seem to add up, no matter which way she tried to look at it.

'I-I don't understand,' Hikari finally said. 'Daisuke hates me. Why is he hiring prostitutes that look like me?'

'Why indeed?' Ishida said softly.

'Do you know?' Hikari asked.

'Yes,' Ishida said as he returned to looking at her. 'As near as we're able to infer, Daisuke still has some unresolved issues over his infatuation of you.'

'But that was a schoolyard crush,' Hikari said. 'He grew out of it.'

'Did he?' Ishida said. 'Have you ever wondered _why_ Daisuke seems to despise you the most out of everyone? Out of everyone, the most logical choice should be Taichi, who with one hand bestowed upon him the position of leader and with the other, made no great effort to locate his protégé. Yet, his anger towards you is the greatest.'

Hikari didn't say anything for a while. She had thought about why Daisuke seemed to hate her the most out of the older generation of DigiDestined but the answer never seemed to present itself no matter how much she looked for it. Obviously she had factored in the crush he had had on her when they were kids, but discarded that option in short order given how he seemed to tone it down shortly after their battle with MaloMyotismon outside of asking her on a single date, which she had promptly turned down.

'Did he…' she began to ask quietly. 'Did he love me?'

'We seem to think so,' Ishida said. 'Part of him may still do, according to our psychologists. Barring scenarios like with Saori, most of what he asks the call girls to do seems to reflect a great deal of desire for intimacy with you.'

'Oh,' Hikari said.

It was all she could think to say in light of that revelation. To say that learning Daisuke had once loved her, and may still do, was a shock was putting it mildly. Of course he would have taken her abandoning him the hardest if he truly felt that way. What other was there to react?

The anger she had felt towards both Daisuke and Ishida, which had slowly been draining over the course of the conversation, ebbed away to nothing. In its place was sympathy, of all things, for the young teen despite his attempted assault on her. Besides, what punishment could be brought down upon him that was worse than the ordeal he was willingly putting himself through? A stint in jail would seem almost like a holiday compared to the near constant deluge of combat he underwent on a daily basis.

'If you want to press charges-' Ishida began but Hikari cut him off.

'No,' she said with a shake of his head. 'No. I… It wouldn't be right.'

Ishida nodded. 'If you're sure.'

He waited to see if Hikari had anything else to say and stood when it seemed apparent she didn't, making for the door, but stopped just before it when she asked, 'Does it help?'

'Does what?' he asked, turning back to her. 'Him hiring those girls?'

'Yeah,' Hikari said.

'I have my doubts,' Ishida said. 'His combat effectiveness seems to take a noticeable if temporary downturn in the immediate aftermath, suggesting he loathes himself for giving into such desires and allows the Digimon he fights to knock him around more than usual as penance.'

'But I thought he wanted to be with them,' Hikari said.

'Part of him does,' Ishida said. 'A small part, I might add. The rest of him hates you with a passion, and in turn himself whenever he does anything that suggests he still wants to be with you.'

'So why do you let him keep doing it?' Hikari asked. 'If it's actually hurting him, stop it.'

'It's not that easy,' Ishida said. 'For starters, he's only able to call upon these services infrequently at best given the nature of the attacks. Second, his combat ability only becomes slightly worse, and for a day or two at most. Thirdly, he's earned himself a significant amount of leeway in how he deals with the stresses he endures.

'I can't say I approve of the idea of an underage teen soliciting the services of a prostitute, or even of him drinking high proof alcohol, because I don't. He is still just a kid. Laws have been broken. But, he seems to be keeping things under control for the time being so he's allowed to carry on as he has been doing.'

'What about in the future?' Hikari said. 'What about when this is all over and he goes back to a normal life? Will he still be keeping things under control then?'

'At this point, thinking about what his health is going to be like in three _months_ is considered optimistic,' Ishida said. 'To say nothing of three years from now, or three decades.'

'That's cruel,' Hikari said.

Ishida shrugged. 'That's how it is.'

'Look, I know where you're coming from,' he added, sighing. 'And I agree. We should be doing everything to ensure that Daisuke actually has a chance at a decent future if, or when, this is all done with. I like him. I really do. The problem is finding a solution that doesn't screw us.

'Say we take the drinks and the girls away. They might be the only things keeping him from finding a way to end it all. In which case, nobody wins. Daisuke would be dead or comatose, and the planet would be under the control of the Dark Ocean.'

'So you're not going to do anything?' Hikari said.

'No,' Ishida said. 'Daisuke's mental state right now is best described as delicate. I don't want to do anything that might cause it to break completely.'

'He could be ruined for the rest of his life!' Hikari said.

'I know,' Ishida said softly. 'But at least he'd be alive.'

For a moment he seemed to deflate, appearing only half as large to Hikari, and she got the impression Daisuke wasn't the only one barely holding it together. After all, the captain was the one for the past two years that had sent a teenager out in combat where he might meet his end, or suffer such trauma that he'd be little more than a living husk for the rest of his days. Worse, he had likely seen the gradual transformation Daisuke had undergone from his usual energetic self into the barely functional zombie he was now. That had to have some kind of effect on a person.

Then he blinked and seemed to go back to normal, saying, 'If that's all, Hikari.'

It was and she let him go without interruption, leaving her all alone in a hospital room once again. There was no Taichi asleep in the chair or a Gatomon curled up near her, nor any get well cards on the beside cabinet or thoughtfully provided snacks in a bag on the floor. All she had was a pitcher of water, a glass, and her phone which Hikari reached for, ignoring the stinging pain of her shoulder as she disturbed it.

There were no missed calls from her friends and family, or waiting text messages, which surprised her. Had Captain Ishida not informed her parents about what had happened? If not the attempted rape then certainly the hospitalisation that had resulted, even spinning a tale about how she had tripped and fallen which, to be fair, wasn't exactly an outright lie. She had tripped and fallen, but over her jeans which had been down around her ankles after Daisuke had undone them. Maybe he wanted to see what her reaction was to the scenario before making that call, or maybe he had decided to leave it up to her about what she told them.

The truth would see Taichi, and Takeru, try to beat Daisuke to within an inch of his life for the assault, followed by calls to the police to have him arrested no matter how many times she might try to convince them everything had happened because of a simple misunderstanding.

_Hell of a misunderstanding_, Hikari thought glumly to herself as she scrolled through her contacts list, finding the name she wanted.

It was Daisuke's, rather than her parents or Taichi's or Takeru's, and her finger hovered over the select key as Hikari tried to figure out exactly what she wanted to say to him. Eventually she sent him a message containing only four words and snapped her phone shut, not expecting a reply from him any time soon. He hadn't replied to any of her other communiques and he may not be in a coherent state to answer, anyway. He could be blind drunk now, passed out in his room with an empty bottle in his hand.

To her great surprise, he soon came back with a reply that contained only a single word answer that nonetheless shook Hikari to her core and made her hand quiver a little as she sent him a follow up question, this one containing a staggering five words. This one he didn't reply to, so Hikari put the phone back on the cabinet and went back to staring up at the ceiling, dwelling on everything she had learned today and the reply Daisuke had sent.

Her first message had read _did you love me?_

His reply was _yes_.

Then she asked if he still loved her and had gotten no reply.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

The army base Hikari found herself in after stepping out of the hospital wasn't anything like what she had been expecting. There were no tanks rumbling past on squealing treads or soldiers in camouflaged fatigues marching in formation, a foul-mouthed sergeant leading them. Instead, she found it looked just like any other town she had visited. Shops of all kinds lined the street, there was a bank, a supermarket, even a cinema or two. More shocking was that plenty of the people walking around were, like her, dressed in civilian clothes rather than military uniforms.

They were probably family members of service personnel, she reasoned, going about their daily lives whilst their partners carried out whatever tasks were assigned to them. She took a few steps towards this strange, bizarre scene, entranced, then snapped out of it and turned her attention to a waiting sedan idling at the kerb. A private was stood beside it holding a sign bearing her name, and he was quick to take hold of her luggage, what little she had, and open the door for his passenger.

Hikari slid into the backseat and struggled with the belt, her arm still in a sling and still aching despite three days of rest and a regimen of painkillers, whilst the private stowed her bag and got back behind the wheel. He took off without a word and navigated the streets towards what looked like a hotel, a modest one, and pulled into a vacant spot near the main lobby. The rest of the spaces were filled with near identical cars to the one they were in, all of them bearing official military and government plates.

Maintaining his silent façade, the soldier alighted from the car and did everything in reverse, collecting Hikari's bags and then opening her door whilst she struggled with the seatbelt before half leading, half escorting her into the hotel building where a polished wood desk with a receptionist in a dress uniform was sat. He gave Hikari's name to the receptionist who glanced at a hidden computer, tapped in a few commands, nodded and produced a room key which the private took hold of. He then led her to a nearby lift and together, they rode it in silence to the floor her new room was located on.

It was only when they reached her room that the soldier actually deigned to speak with her, presenting the key to Hikari and saying, 'Your quarters, miss. The rest of your luggage has already been deposited inside, plus a briefing packet concerning your stay here. If there are any questions you have, the numbers for the necessary personnel are included.'

He stepped back and waited for Hikari to open the door, following her in, and deposited her bag on the bed before leaving her alone in the room. Once the door had closed Hikari took a moment to examine her new home for the first time. It was more spacious than the spartan room Captain Ishida had given her back at his base, and better decorated, with a plush double bed sitting in the centre of the room. Either side of it were bedside cabinets finished in the same polished wood as the front desk, brass lamps sitting atop them.

Opposite it was a wall mounted television that had access to almost every channel Hikari could think of when she turned it on, including a 24/7 news channel, which she left running in the background. Over in the corner was a simple desk, complete with the means of making a hot drink should she want one and a plain looking telephone set. There was an envelope on the desk too, addressed to her and no doubt the briefing packet she had to read over, but Hikari ignored it for the time being and turned her attention to the room's en suite.

Like the rest of the room it was bigger than her old one and better furnished too, the floor alone being made of tiles rather than cheap linoleum, and she wasted no time in stripping her clothes off to take a long, hot shower that left her skin flush with colour when she stepped out. She wrapped one of the complimentary towels around her body and padded, barefoot, back into the room to sit on the bed to watch the news. It was showing more of the same as it had before, of ever-increasing attacks by Digimon and the JSDF's attempts to quell them, and the growing civilian casualties following each battle.

There was the occasional snippet of Daisuke in his suit, throwing himself against the enemy, but nothing with a clear enough view to make out any major detail. Despite this, the anchors consulted with so called experts who gave their opinion on what was happening, getting things wrong far more often than they got them right. Hikari watched it until she grew bored and reached for the envelope addressed to her, opening it up to deposit a booklet and some laminated ID passes bearing her photo.

She flicked through the booklet with feigned interest, seeing that it was really just a list of places she couldn't go and things she couldn't do whilst staying on base, plus the procedures her family and friends would need to go through if they wanted to visit, and when her eyelids started to feel heavy Hikari tossed it aside and lay down on the bed, allowing sleep to claim her without a fight, and suffered through a fitful slumber plagued by nightmares that ended when she jerked awake, roused by the incessant trilling of her phone as it received a call from her brother.

'Hey, Taichi,' she mumbled, rubbing sleep from her eye as she answered.

'_Hey, sis_,' Taichi said, sounding far more alert than his sister. '_How are you feeling?_'

'Better than before,' Hikari said. Her shoulder was hurting again, a sign the medication was wearing off, and there was still a gentle throbbing from the fracture in her skull, but nowhere near what it had been only a few days ago. 'I'm in my new room, now. It's nice.'

'_Nicer than home?_'

'Almost,' Hikari said. She struggled to sit upright and looked out the window, seeing it was raining again, and added, 'How's Gatomon?'

'_She's missing you_,' Taichi said. '_Takeru has her. He said he'll bring her over with him when he visits._'

There was pause then he said, '_Is everything all right with you?_'

'Aside from the wounds, and being the target of an evil monster, I'm fine,' Hikari said. 'Why do you ask?'

'_Because it took them a full day to tell us you were in the hospital again_,' Taichi said.

'So?' Hikari said.

'_So_,' Taichi said. '_Why did they take so long to let us know where you were? Did something happen to you they don't want us to know about?_'

Hikari felt her heart beat a little faster as her grip on the phone tightened, flashes of a drunken Daisuke groping and molesting her appearing before her eyes, but she forced her breathing to remain steady and her voice to stay level as she said, 'Nothing happened, Taichi. I tripped and fell, is all. Maybe they just didn't have my contact information.'

'_They're the military_,' Taichi said. '_The government. I bet they have all our information downloaded onto their phones, ready to use it at a moment's notice. How could they just lose it for a day?_'

'I don't know,' Hikari said. 'Maybe you should call and ask Captain Ishida. He was the one who found me.'

'_Yeah, maybe_,' Taichi muttered. '_Because he'll give me a straight answer._'

_No, I don't think he would_, Hikari thought. _Not for this._

'He's got all our best interests at heart,' Hikari said instead. 'And he's got a lot to deal with. Maybe he was just distracted by the infected Digimon. They did a number on Daisuke that day.'

'_I didn't know that_,' Taichi said.

'That's because you never thought to check up on him,' Hikari said, her tone accusatory. 'Not that you've had too good a track record of that, recently.'

There was a long, heavy silence from Taichi after that comment, to the point Hikari wondered if he had hung up on her, but then she heard him give a short, irritated sigh and say, '_Don't start up with that, again. We looked for him and the others. I know it and you should as well, so why do you keep saying we didn't look for them?_'

'Because we didn't,' Hikari said. 'I know I didn't and I know everyone else didn't, either, and we have the records to prove it.'

'_You mean you have files that Captain Ishida _says_ are records that prove it_,' Taichi shot back. '_They could be fakes, Hikari._'

Her headache, that up until now had been subdued and ignorable, became sharp at that and Hikari raised a hand to massage where the fracture was, her brow furrowed in irritation.

'And they could be real,' she snapped at Taichi. 'And it's you who's lying. To yourself and everyone else. What then, huh? What if everything Captain Ishida has in those files is true? What then, Taichi?'

'_Hikari-_' he tried to say, either a scathing comment to fire back or some late attempt to soothe her, but she didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence.

'I don't want to hear it,' she shouted at him. 'Go on a date with Meiko and lie to yourself about that as well, how you aren't really boyfriend and girlfriend, or find some other kid to take under your wing so you can abandon him at a crucial moment in his life.'

She snapped her phone shut and threw it against the wall, too hard, and watching it explode into a dozen pieces startled her by the violence of the action. It was a testament to how much these past few weeks had gotten to her and Hikari was quick to regret her actions. That phone was her only means of getting in contact with her friends, the only number she had memorised being that of home, and now it was lying smashed on the floor.

Hikari sighed and knelt down beside the mess, scooping up everything she could, and stared at the plastic components in her hands for a second of two before standing and dumping it on the desk where her eyes drifted to the telephone sitting next to the pile that was once her phone. She picked up the handset and held it to her ear, hitting the button marked reception, and waited for the staff to pick up.

'_Hello, front desk_,' was the neutral answer.

'Yeah, hi, it's Hikari Yagami in room 501,' Hikari said. 'I was wondering, could you tell me if the base has a phone shop? I broke mine.'

'_Certainly, Miss Yagami_,' the receptionist said. '_One moment, please._'

There was a faint tapping of keys as the receptionist called up whatever directories she had access to that listed the base's amenities, running them down, and said, '_We have three on base currently, all of which carry civilian models. Would you like for me to call a car?'_

'If that's okay,' Hikari said. 'Thank you.'

'_Not at all_,' the receptionist said. '_They should be here within fifteen minutes._'

Hikari thanked her again and hung up, turning to her suitcase. It was the one that she had left at Captain Ishida's base, which he had generously had delivered, and she opened it up to see her clothes were neatly packed away with typical military precision. Sitting on top of the clothes though was another envelope addressed to her, bearing the captain's now familiar handwriting, and when Hikari opened it she found a debit card in her name and a letter from Captain Ishida, explaining that it held over a hundred-thousand yen for if, or when, she had to buy something during her time on base.

She smiled and grabbed some clean clothes, pocketing the card once she was dressed and sweeping what remained of her phone into the envelope it had come in and, after grabbing her new IDs, headed for the hotel lobby to wait for her driver to come. It seemed strange that the staff here were going out of their way to cater to her, especially as she was a civilian with zero ties to the military, and Hikari wondered what they had been told about her. Did they think she was the daughter of some important officer, or a visiting diplomat? Or, had Captain Ishida and his superiors ordered them to extend every amenity available? Whatever it was, it certainly seemed like she had VIP status on base.

The receptionist smiled and nodded at her when she reached the lobby, busying herself with work at her desk as Hikari perched on a sofa to wait out the rest of the fifteen minutes for her driver, who arrived exactly on time. Like before, he was dressed in camouflaged fatigues but this one was a corporal, not a private, though he was just as polite as the other one and he held Hikari's door open for her and closed it when she was seated.

He got in behind the wheel and said, 'Where to, miss?'

'A phone shop, please,' Hikari said. 'I kind of broke mine.'

'An all too common occurrence on base,' the corporal said. 'Is there anything else you wish to do?'

'I don't think so,' Hikari said. 'Why?'

'Because that'll change which shop I go to,' the corporal began. 'The nearest two don't really have anything around them, but the third is in what passes for the base's city centre. There are places to get some food, new clothes, even a cinema. I hear it's playing a bunch of new anime OVAs. If you're interested, that is, miss.'

'I could go to the cinema,' Hikari said. 'It beats sitting around in my room all day, alone.'

'To the city centre it is, then,' the corporal said.

He took off and they made the reverse of the journey Hikari had made only hours ago, driving past the hospital that had looked after her for all those long days until they reached a busy looking street. As promised, it had a cinema, clothes stores and eateries, which were a mixture of western style fast food joints and traditional ramen booths, and a phone store. Hikari thanked the driver and got out the vehicle, watching it drive off once the door was shut. Then, she orientated herself on the phone store and went inside.

A man in his thirties was standing behind the counter, flicking through a manga, and he looked up at the jingling of a bell the door had nudged when Hikari opened it. He flipped the manga shut and stood up, a smile on his face, and said, 'Welcome. Can I help you?'

'Probably not,' Hikari said as she pulled out the envelope containing what had once been her phone. 'I accidentally smashed it.'

'Well, let's have a look,' the man said, patting an open space on the desk. 'You never know. Miracles do occasionally happen.'

Hikari nodded and did as requested, spilling the envelope's contents onto the surface and stepped back, waiting for the man's appraisal, wincing when he let out a soft sigh and shook his head.

'I can fix it,' he said, prodding the internals. 'But it'd take me a week. You'd be better off buying a whole new phone, and transferring your numbers over. Are there any photos on here you might want to save?'

'No,' Hikari said, shaking her head. 'I have a camera for that. Besides, any photos on there should be on a memory card.'

'Smart,' the man said.

He sifted through everything until he found the part that held the card and popped it out, presenting it to Hikari who took it, followed by the SIM card. Then he turned to the wall behind him and cast his eye over the vast array of models hanging from hooks. There were plenty of models from Japanese companies, but she spotted one or two that came from the west. To her surprise, the man actually reached for one such phone and placed it on the counter before her with a flourish.

'If you're looking for a replacement, might I suggest this one?' he said. 'It's from a Finnish company called Nokia, the N95, that launched earlier this year. It might not be quite on par with what Sony, Fujitsu or Panasonic can offer in terms of features, but it beats them all in terms of durability. Especially if you're likely to drop it again.

'Though if you want something really tough,' he added, a grin on his face. 'And don't mind a lack of features, I've got some other phones from that company, the 3310s, that'll outlast anything and everything. Heck, I doubt even Segata Sanshiro could break one.'

He chuckled at his joke but Hikari just stood there, nonplussed, and turned her attention to the blue box that contained the phone being offered to her. It was slightly bigger than her old phone and coloured silver, and rather than being a flip phone it slid to reveal either a keypad or playback buttons for music or videos. On the back was a camera bigger than any Hikari had seen on a phone, though it still paled in comparison to her actual camera.

Like the man said, it wasn't quite as packed with features one might expect from a Japanese model but there was a reassuring heft to the phone, a sturdiness, that made Hikari feel like it could probably keep up with her, at times, dangerous lifestyle as a DigiDestined. Failing that, she could always try one of those other models from Nokia the man had mentioned.

She handed over the debit card Captain Ishida had set aside for her and the man swiped it through his machine, placing her new phone into a plastic bag and sweeping the remains of her old one into the bin. Hikari thanked him and said goodbye, stepping back outside into the base's commercial centre. The rain had stopped during the drive over but everything around her was still wet, glistening in the sun as it broke through a grey cloud cover to begin the long process of drying the land out.

She squinted against the brightness and aimed for the restaurants, choosing ramen over everything else, and used her time at the table to set up her new phone. It came to life with the press of a button and she was treated to the start up screen, of two hands reaching out to touch one another beneath the Nokia logo, and she soon found herself thinking of Takeru and his upcoming visit tomorrow. It would be good to see him again after everything that had happened with Daisuke, and to talk to him about what kind of future their relationship might have if he backed down from every fight they had.

Then she looked at the half-eaten bowl of ramen and was reminded that Daisuke's dream was to become a ramen cook, something that now might not ever come true if things with the Dark Ocean didn't turn out just right. There wasn't even a guarantee he'd still want to become a cook if he survived this battle. Her appetite soon faded but she forced herself to eat anyway and glanced at the screen as it came alive, notification after notification popping up as a deluge of missed calls and new text messages were received by the phone.

It took a little while to figure out what was from who, her contacts not yet transferred over, and when they were Hikari spent the next ten minutes sorting through them and sending replies. Taichi had sent a few, apologies for the most part, which Hikari promptly ignored and deleted out of spite. Everyone else she fed the same story of tripping and falling by accident whilst on the base, assuring them everything was okay, though of course Joe had to delve deeper into her injuries and use the proper medical jargon to describe them, most of which Hikari remembered from when the doctor first spoke with her.

Once that was done, she spent another ten minutes stumbling through the menus to set the phone up properly and to her liking, sliding it shut and pocketing it. Feeling complete and in touch with the wider world once more, Hikari stood and scanned the street for the nearest cinema, her next destination, and looked at the titles on offer as she approached. Like her driver had said, there were plenty of OVAs rather than feature films but some of them ran almost as long, so Hikari picked one that sound half familiar that was starting soon and bought a ticket.

An usher directed her to the right screen and found she wasn't alone. Around half the seats were already filled by other movie goers, none of them in uniform or older than eighteen or nineteen, clustered in groups as small as three and as big as eight. There were only three people other than her that were by themselves, splitting their attention between the screen as it showed previews for upcoming features and their phones, and she joined them in their pursuit.

Her phone buzzed with an incoming message from Takeru, details about when he'd show up tomorrow and suggestive promises about what they could do to fill their time together. Hikari allowed herself a smile and messaged him back, reminding him that her arm was still tender and they couldn't do anything too vigorous without risking her needing a third trip to the hospital. He promised he'd find a suitable alternative and that was that, Hikari shutting the phone, as a trailer for another anime came on.

It looked like a slice of life series with a heavy emphasis on the growing romance between the two main characters as they navigated the intricacies of high school, plus them weathering the hijinks of their larger than life friends, with the OVA serving as a finale for the show as a whole. One of the major selling points for the film revolved around answering the question of whether or not the main boy and girl would get together, which they probably would do in Hikari's opinion. She was vaguely familiar with the show and the teasing between the two characters was anything but subtle.

Of course they'd get together. It was as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening, and a trope that Hikari found a little boring. Why not shake it up on occasion by having the hero fall in love with a supporting character, even as an aside? But no, those two characters were all but fated to fall in love with one another and live out the rest of their lives together because destiny said so.

She let out a soft sigh and watched the rest of the trailer, but her mind soon wandered back to Takeru and her relationship with him. Like Taichi, he was absolutely certain they had gone looking for Daisuke and the others, something she utterly disagreed with. Could they remain a couple if they remained at odds about such a thing? Simply ignoring the issue and acting like it didn't exist wouldn't work, because it would fester and stew inside Hikari until she could no longer bear the guilt. Sooner rather than later, she would confront Takeru about it and they'd wind up in some massive row, assuming of course he would carry through with it rather than bowing out at the first hint of an argument.

Her giddy anticipation at meeting Takeru tomorrow turned to anxiety almost instantly following that thought, and her desire to see the movie went with it. Hikari stood and left the theatre before the film could even begin, exiting the theatre entirely shortly after. There was no car waiting for her because she had told the driver she wanted to go to the cinema rather than return to the hotel after sorting her phone situation, and neither was there a bus running in that direction which left travelling by foot.

Hikari spent most of the two-mile trip grappling with her newfound worries and possible ways to overcome it, barely perceiving the walk, and when she reached her hotel room she picked up the list of numbers Captain Ishida had provided her. His was top of the list and she quickly dialled it, hoping the captain was free to answer.

He was, picking up after only a few rings to say, '_Hikari. I'm surprised to hear from you so soon. How are your new quarters?_'

'They're fine,' she said. 'Thank you for arranging it.'

'_Not at all_,' Ishida said. '_Have you read through the briefing packet?_'

'Yes,' Hikari said. She paused, then asked, 'Captain, the records that Ken, Miyako and Iori read, about the IAA's observations of us, you're certain that they're true?'

'_Absolutely certain_,' Ishida said. '_The people that watched you were from a joint task force between the IAA and my unit. In fact, I participated in some of the missions. Everything that's in those files is genuine._'

'Did you ever watch me?' Hikari asked. 'Or Takeru?'

'_No_,' Ishida said. '_My targets were either Koushiro or Joe._'

'Did you ever speak to the people that did?'

'_On occasion. Why?_'

'Because I want to know if they saw anything unusual,' Hikari said. 'Like, if there was anything extra strange about how we were acting.'

'_You mean, outside of the lack of concern for your missing team members?_' Ishida said.

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'Anything to suggest that we were being controlled or manipulated or interfered with. I need to know if there was anything like that going on.'

'_Ah_,' Ishida said. He was silent for a moment, then, '_No. We never saw anything like that. It was business as usual for the eight of you, beyond the apparent lack of concern for the missing four. We even had psychiatrists come in and evaluate everyone._'

'And?' Hikari said.

'_And, nothing_,' Ishida said. '_You all came across as healthy, normal people. No sociopathic tendencies, no emotional disorders, nothing to suggest why you would suddenly fail to care about your absent friends. Neither was there anything to suggest an outside influence was forcing you to not care. None of your other behaviours were affected in the slightest._'

'And you're absolutely, positively, one-hundred percent certain, that those files are entirely authentic and a fully accurate record of what we did in those three months?' Hikari said.

'_I am_,' Ishida said. '_I know what Taichi thinks, that they're just a gimmick to fragment you, but he's wrong. Everything in those files is a fully accurate record of what happened two years ago. The eight of you barely lifted a finger to find your missing friends, for no reason that we could rationally discern, for a full three-month period. Then, you convinced yourselves that you had._'

He finished talking and waited for Hikari to reply, though when she kept silent he asked, '_Why the sudden desire to know this?_'

She remained quiet for a few moments more, almost a full minute, then let out a soft sigh and gave him an answer.

'I'm breaking up with Takeru.'


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Hikari didn't get any sleep. If she wasn't tossing and turning, agonising over her decision, then she was dreaming of Takeru's face when she told him and how it would just crumple into sadness and despair. She didn't want to do that. If anything, she wanted to keep from subjecting Takeru to such a thing. She wanted for them to carry on as boyfriend and girlfriend, maybe even get married to him somewhere down the line and have kids. But if they couldn't reach an agreement on what had happened two years ago, there was no way Hikari could see any of that happening without their relationship inevitably coming undone at the seams.

She gave up trying to sleep just as the first hint of dawn appeared on the horizon, listlessly watching the news channel even as her mind fixated on what she might say to Takeru, what he might say to her, running through every possible argument she could imagine that might come up in the hopes of putting her mind at ease before Takeru could arrive. Nothing worked. Everything came down to his recollection of events against hers, and that of the IAA. If she couldn't manage to convince him they hadn't looked, that was it. They couldn't be together.

That realisation hit hard and Hikari wished time would slow to an absolute crawl, so that she could keep from making it a reality, but the world had other plans and before she knew it, there was a knock at her door. She stood and shuffled to it, pulled it open, and instantly knew today was going to be bad.

Takeru was stood on the other side, his arms full of bags containing treats for them to share and enjoy together, Patamon on his head and Gatomon on his shoulder, looking at her with adoration and love on his face which quickly changed when he saw the state Hikari was in.

'Hey, what's up?' he said, freeing up an arm to try and pull Hikari into an embrace. 'Did something happen?'

She shook her head and headed back to the bed, dumping herself on it, and scooped up Gatomon when the cat Digimon jumped down off Takeru's shoulder, holding her close as he remained standing in the short hallway, looking at her.

'We need to talk,' Hikari finally said. 'About us.'

'About us what?' Takeru said. 'The other day at the base?'

'No,' Hikari said. 'About two years ago.'

He blinked and looked at her for a moment in disbelief, as though he couldn't fathom what it was Hikari wanted to talk about, and then it shifted to irritation that that was the topic of conversation she had chosen for his visit. The bags full of treats fell from his hand and landed with a thump on the floor, crushing some of the more delicate items, and Takeru fixed her with a glare.

'That's what you want to talk about?' he said. 'We were supposed to be celebrating you getting out of the hospital.'

'I know,' Hikari said. 'But it gave me a lot of time to think about things, and I kept coming back to then. Takeru, we have to talk about it.'

'Do we?' he said. 'I know what I did. What we _all_ did. I just don't know why you seem to think otherwise.'

'Because I can't remember looking for them,' Hikari said. 'If I actually looked for Daisuke and Miyako and Ken and Iori, why can't I remember the specifics of what we did outside of calling their phones? Sending them emails? When did we ever go out and physically look for them? When?'

She looked at Takeru and waited for him to reply, to come up with a definitive answer of exactly what they had done. There was nothing concrete that Hikari could recall with any measure of absolute certainty beyond the time she and Takeru had gone to Ken's apartment, and watching Takeru's face it seemed like neither could he. But unlike her, there was no sudden flash of guilt and self-loathing at realising he had left four of his close friends to their potential deaths, no shock or horror at his inaction. For a split second, maybe, but nothing beyond that.

He shrugged and said, 'We must have looked. We never would have abandoned them.'

'So tell me what we did,' Hikari said. 'What you and I did, other than what I've already mentioned. Tell me, Takeru. Give me an itemised list of what you did to find everyone.'

Hikari sat back and waited, her stare morphing into a glare as Takeru just stood there, averting his gaze, running through those three months where four of their own were missing. She had done it plenty of times and come up short. Takeru seemed to be in the same boat as her, but his reaction to it was vastly different than her own.

'I can't,' he said, throwing his arms up in the air. 'Okay? I can't remember what we did. But guess what? It was over two years ago. I can't be expected to remember everything that was going on then, especially with all the infected Digimon we had to deal with! Stuff was going to slip through the cracks, Hikari. How do you know that's not happened to you?'

'It might have,' Hikari said. 'I'd still remember something about what we did. Seeing as I can't, it must mean I didn't do anything worthwhile searching for our missing friends. That, and the IAA was watching us the entire time. They have records that prove it, Takeru! We never did anything to find anyone. Ever.'

'So they say,' Takeru muttered. 'We don't know for certain if those files are real or not.'

'They were convincing enough for Miyako,' Hikari said. 'And Iori, too. If we can't trust our DNA partners' judgement, are we really as close as we thought?'

Takeru remained silent and continued to avoid looking directly at her, or in her general vicinity. It reminded Hikari of when they had finally reunited with Daisuke after his 'relocation' to California, how his refusal to even acknowledge her presence belied greater issues running deep beneath his otherwise calm exterior. This wasn't quite so with Takeru who's face was slowly contorting into a snarl, as though readying himself to shout and hurl abuse at her.

'I know what I did,' Takeru muttered lowly instead.

'So do I,' Hikari said. 'And none of it included looking for them.'

Now Takeru chose to lock eyes with Hikari, glaring at her as tears began welling up in the corners. He seemed furious with her, and betrayed, and shocked, and like he didn't know what to do about any of it. They had been such a good couple, seemingly fated to get together since they were young, always having one another's backs. Yet here she was, accusing him of abandoning his friends and siding with an organisation he had little to no love for. They were supposed to be in love with each other.

'Are you really choosing Daisuke and his bastard superior over me?' he said. 'Over everyone else you've fought alongside?'

'I'm not choosing anyone over anyone else,' Hikari said.

'Yeah, you are,' Takeru snarled. 'You're choosing Daisuke over your own boyfriend. Unless you want him to be your boyfriend now and this whole 'never searched for them' crap is some extravagant way of breaking up with me.'

He stopped and something flashed in his eyes, some sudden realisation coming to him, and he said, 'That's it, isn't it? You're in love with Daisuke. That's why you pushed him to come back home, so you could try and win him over. He's the one you love now.'

'That's not true,' Hikari tried to say but Takeru was having none of it. He barely even seemed to be listening anymore, carrying on as though she hadn't spoken.

'God, it all makes sense now,' he went on. 'Ever since he came back Daisuke's been all you can think about. All you can talk about. You're in love with him, with Daisuke. I bet you used your time on base together to confess your feelings to him. Knowing him, Daisuke probably leapt at the chance to be with the only girl he's had a crush on.

'That's why nobody could get in contact with you that night, or the next day. You were going at it like animals, weren't you?'

'We didn't do anything,' Hikari said, almost shouting, but it fell on deaf ears.

'And then you had Captain Ishida cover it up by saying you were in the hospital,' Takeru continued, lost in his own conspiracy. 'So you could have another day fucking each other.'

He spat that out at her, his face stricken with grief and streaked with tears. Hikari knew breaking up with Takeru was going to be hard on both of them, but she never imagined it would end with him inventing wild stories and theories about her and Daisuke becoming an item, or that they could somehow include Captain Ishida in keeping it a secret from everyone else, even as a coping mechanism.

'Well I hope you're happy together,' he shouted at her. 'And I hope he winds up dying, just like you dreamed he would.'

'We're not together!' Hikari screamed back, shooting up so quickly Gatomon went flying as she grabbed the front of Takeru's shirt, shaking him. 'I'm not in love with Daisuke and I've never had sex with him, ever. You're the one I love, Takeru. You. I love you.'

He finally seemed to register what she was saying but it looked like too little, too late as his shoulders sagged and the will to do, well, anything left his body. A forlorn appeared on Takeru's face as he whispered, 'I wish I could believe that.'

She let go and stepped back, the strength fading from her arms, and Hikari could only watch as Takeru staggered towards the door and slid it open, leaving her and Gatomon alone in the room without so much as a single, final glance back at them. He just left and let the door shut of its own accord.

'Are you okay, Hikari?' Gatomon said when Hikari sank to her knees, a vacant expression adorning her face. 'Do you want me to call someone?'

'Tell me I'm wrong,' she said. 'Tell me we went out looking, Gatomon, that all the stress of the past few weeks is getting to me and making me forget.'

'I could but then I'd be lying,' Gatomon said. 'Whenever we were together during that time, we never went looking for them. We never even spoke about Daisuke and the others. You acted like he didn't matter.'

'Am I a monster?' Hikari asked.

'No,' Gatomon said. 'You're the kindest person I've ever met.'

'So why can't I remember looking for them?' Hikari whispered. 'Why can't I remember being more concerned about them being missing?'

Gatomon didn't answer right away, contemplating her answer, then said, 'I don't know. Maybe someone was messing with you.'

'Captain Ishida said there wasn't any evidence of that,' Hikari said.

'That he could see,' Gatomon said. 'You humans aren't always the most observant creatures at times. There are still people who think I'm some exotic kitty cat when they see me, or a stuffed animal. Maybe he missed something.'

'I hope so,' Hikari said with a sigh, scooping Gatomon up off the floor and holding her close, petting her soft fur in an attempt to soothe herself. Not only had she broken up with her boyfriend, the first and only one she'd had, but she'd done some serious damage to his psyche that might or might not be permanent. Why else would he suddenly decide that she and Daisuke were an item?

After a while Hikari let go of Gatomon and pulled out her phone, scrolling through the contacts until she found Miyako's number. If there was anyone that stood any chance at reversing her spirits, if only by a little, it was her.

Miyako answered by the third ring and immediately knew something was seriously wrong just by the way Hikari said hello, promising to be there within the hour. She actually made it within forty-five minutes, bursting through the door to wrap Hikari in an all-encompassing hug that nearly forced the last bit of breath from her best friend.

'Tell me what happened,' Miyako said as she guided Hikari to the bed, sitting them both down and holding her hand. 'Don't miss out a single detail.'

'I broke up with Takeru,' Hikari said and went on to describe everything that had transpired between her and the blonde teen, Miyako listening intently the entire time even as her expression morphed into barely contained rage.

'Takeru said that?' she yelled when Hikari finished. 'As if you'd stoop so low as to sleep with Daisuke Motomiya! My girl has some standards, at least.'

'He's not that bad,' Hikari said in Daisuke's defence.

'Oh, he really is,' Miyako said. 'Ken told me all kinds of horror stories about when they stayed over at each other's places. The mess, the snoring, the smells, the topics of conversation. I'm dreading the day Ken's bachelor party comes around because I know he'll put Daisuke in charge of it.'

'You and Ken are thinking that far ahead?' Hikari said.

Miyako smiled. 'I am. Ken's just along for the ride.'

She laughed and Hikari joined in as well a little, her mind's eye flashing forward to the day when Miyako and Ken tied the knot and were officially a married couple. No doubt she'd hold the role of maid of honour, though it'd be a role in name only as Miyako would try to handle everything herself, wanting every detail to be just so. Obviously Daisuke would be Ken's best man and on the big day, so the four of them would be spending plenty of time around each other. Her thoughts then drifted to her own wedding, of which Miyako would definitely be the maid of honour, but the moment she tried to speculate as to who Takeru's best man would be she remembered they were no longer a couple, her smile fading.

'Oh, no,' Miyako said, pointing a finger at Hikari the moment she saw the shift in attitude. 'No. Don't even go there. I didn't come all this way to watch you mope about what could have been with Takeru. As far as we're concerned, from this moment on, his name is trash.'

'It's scary how you knew what I was thinking,' Hikari said, watching the pointed finger keenly. 'Even at a glance.'

'That's because you're my best friend,' Miyako said as she put the finger away. 'It's my job to know where your head's at, at all times.'

Hikari nodded and, with some difficulty, pushed the image of Takeru dressed in a tuxedo standing at the altar, waiting for her, from her head as Miyako clapped her hands together and said, 'Now that's settled, shall we order room service? We might as well if the army's footing the bill.'

Twenty minutes later the bed was festooned with plates and bowls bearing a wide variety of food, plus the ice cream Miyako all but declared a vital part of the breakup process, and the two girls began picking away at it as they tried, and failed, to find a topic of conversation that didn't revolve around Takeru, or whichever insulting nickname Miyako had bestowed upon him at that point.

'I'm just saying,' Miyako said between slices of fried chicken. 'You tried your best to convince him otherwise, and he refused to change his mind. If Lord Douchebag really loved you, he would have at least considered the possibility he was wrong.'

'Maybe I didn't try hard enough,' Hikari said. She was working on a tub of chocolate ice cream, spooning mouthfuls in at a time, but the rate she was eating it would mean it was going to melt before she was even halfway through.

'Don't make excuses for him,' Miyako said. 'You tried as hard as you could and he still chose to believe his own memory. This breakup is his fault, and his alone. Let him suffer for it.'

'I was the one to end it, though,' Hikari said. 'I'm the reason we broke up.'

'No, he is,' Miyako said, waving her chopsticks around in lieu of her finger to give Hikari a warning. 'You just recognised he wasn't willing to put as much effort into this relationship. I mean, what kind of person refuses to even entertain the idea that his girlfriend might be right about something? It's almost as bad as refusing to even have an argument. I could never fall for a man that doesn't argue back.'

'You mean, Ken does?' Hikari said.

'On occasion,' Miyako said, flashing a devious grin. 'When I let him.'

They shared a little laugh at that but it soon petered out, and Hikari put her tub of ice cream down on the bedside cabinet. It was more cream than ice by now, and she hadn't really felt like eating it in the first place. Gatomon didn't seem to mind as she took control of the tub, placing it next to the plate of chicken katasu she was working her way through, and Hikari took a moment to pet her partner's head.

'We still broke up,' she said. 'My first relationship ended up a failure.'

'Well, you know what they say about when you fail,' Miyako said. 'It's a first attempt in learning. Or, loving in your case. Besides, nobody said you and that dumbass were destined to be together forever.'

'Plenty of people have said that,' Hikari said, giving her friend a pointed stare. 'Including you.'

Miyako offered a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, saying, 'Er, well, yeah. I guess I did,' before snapping back to her usual focused self, adding, 'But that's besides the point. Just because people say it's true doesn't make it so. If fate really wanted you and that blonde moron to be together, he'd be here right now instead of me.

'Seeing as he isn't, I'd say that means Hikari Yagami is back on the market, just waiting for her next Prince Charming to come sweep her off her feet. And this time, she gets to choose who she falls in love with, not destiny.'

She struck a dramatic gesture, holding her thumb up to Hikari, who watched the display with exasperation over her friend's antics and let out a resigned sigh.

'And if I want my Prince Charming to be Takeru?' Hikari asked.

'Then go after him,' Miyako said. 'But I'd be ready to move on if he doesn't want to put the effort in. There are plenty more fish in the sea that would kill to have a girl as great as you as their partner.'

'What, like Daisuke?' Hikari said, half joking.

'Sure,' Miyako said. 'If you want to date a cheap Taichi knockoff. Raise your standards a little, Hikari. You can do better.'

She probably could, Hikari reasoned, but the fact that Daisuke had volunteered to help defend the world against the infected Digimon for the past two years, at great personal cost no less, spoke of no small amount of devotion and dedication on his part. Then again, Miyako was right in saying Daisuke was like a smaller version of her brother. He had basically styled himself on Taichi after a chance encounter in the playground when they were very young, and it was for that reason why she had turned down his offer of a date two years ago.

But thinking that, had Daisuke thrown off whatever attributes of Taichi's he'd copied after being betrayed by his mentor? How much had he changed in the past two years? Was he even the same person she once knew?

'Hikari,' Miyako said, snapping her friend from her thoughts. 'I said you can do better than Daisuke, so stop thinking about him. Think bigger, better, less annoying.'

'Like Ken?' Hikari teased.

Miyako's expression fell flat as she brandished her chopsticks.

'Lay a single finger on that boy and I will use these to end you.'


	20. Chapter 20

Twenty

The next two weeks passed without major incidents. Digimon attacks occurred all over Japan, sweeping ever closer to the southern tip of the country, which Daisuke and the JSDF responded to with their usual efficiency, and Hikari got used to her new life on the army base. Her first few days there were the hardest, doubly so given her breakup with Takeru and the absolute breaking of his spirit, but eventually she found herself longing for the day when she could leave.

It wasn't that the base was lacking when it came to things to do because it wasn't, possessing all the amenities she might want to find in any town or city across the country. More, it was the lack of social interaction that was getting to her, Hikari's only constant companion being Gatomon which was all well and good, but she wanted to spend time with others on occasion, even friends that weren't DigiDestined and had no idea about her double life.

Sadly, that wasn't to be. As far as anyone outside her family and the DigiDestined knew, she was in a private hospital taking part in a medical trial after catching some mysterious illness with visitation restricted to just immediate family. That meant while she could call and text them, she couldn't see any of her schoolfriends until the issue with the Dark Ocean was concluded favourably.

Hikari blew out a long, resigned sigh as she thought that for the umpteenth time, flicking through the various channels her television had access in the hopes of finding something worthwhile to watch. This had been her life for the past two weeks, channel hopping between visits to the hotel's gym and swimming pool or the cinema further into town, and Hikari was sure she had consumed more mass media in that time than ever before in her life.

She had even forced herself to watch the Star Wars films to try and see for herself what was so great about the series that the designers looked to it for inspiration with the Mark I suit, seeing nothing that really leapt out at her as being particularly great beyond the visuals in the second and third films, or were they the fifth and sixth ones?

Whichever, Hikari didn't see what the big fuss was about and shifted her attention to something else, and then something else after that, and so on and so forth until the days themselves started to lose all meaning. They all blurred into one and if her phone didn't display the date, there was no way Hikari could have said for absolute certain if it was the weekend or the middle of the week.

'Anything good on?' Gatomon asked from beside her partner, curled up into a ball like she were just another cat sleeping.

'No,' Hikari said. 'Just the same stuff we've watched a dozen times before, and the news.'

'Might as well leave that on, then,' Gatomon said. 'It's what we keep coming back to.'

Hikari did just that, cycling through to her preferred news channel to watch the day's stories and maybe, just maybe, pick up some kind of abstract clue that could help them in their fight against the Dark Ocean. She hadn't these past two weeks, but today could well be the day that changed so Hikari did as she had done and sat, idly scratching the back of Gatomon's head, as the anchors went through the top stories concerning Japan, and the wider world.

At first it seemed like business as usual, the two hosts discussing the attacks by infected Digimon as per usual, but then she realised they were saying the most recent attack had occurred several days ago, with no new battles since then. For the first time in almost two years, there hadn't been an attack by the infected Digimon anywhere on the planet.

'They've stopped attacking,' Hikari said aloud, waking Gatomon. 'The Dark Ocean has stopped infecting the Digimon here.'

'It has?' Gatomon said as she raised her head. 'That's good, right?'

'Maybe,' Hikari said. 'Probably not. They've still got all those Digimon they stole away, plus those shadowy creatures.'

'That means there's no other Digimon left in the world,' Gatomon said. 'Just me and the others.'

'I bet there's some stragglers still out there,' Hikari said. 'The Dark Ocean couldn't have gotten them all.'

'I hope so,' Gatomon said. 'It's kind of depressing to think you're one of the last Digimon to have a partner.'

'More will come,' Hikari said, pulling Gatomon in for a comforting hug as she continued to watch the news, enraptured by this new turn of events and the chilling implications.

With no other Digimon left in the world, that meant there was almost nobody left who could stand against the Dark Ocean should the armies of the world fail in their mission outside of the eleven of them. If things came to that they'd be forced to digivolve their partners to the Mega level, the only hope of fighting off an invading force of Ultimate Digimon three-thousand strong which was, most likely, the Dark Ocean's ultimate goal.

An all-out attack from them had to be coming soon, or even an attempt to kidnap her to help build up their forces, or something else of a sinister nature now that Daisuke and the JSDF had destroyed every last Digimon on the planet.

Her phone rang not long after and Hikari answered it without checking the screen, holding it to her ear and saying, 'Yes?'

'_We need to speak with you_,' came the voice on the other end, Captain Ishida, who sounded as composed as usual.

'Yeah, I've just seen the news,' Hikari said.

'_Good_,' Ishida said. '_A car will be there to pick you up in ten minutes. Bring Gatomon._'

'Of course,' Hikari said, and the line went dead.

She pocketed her phone and stood, pocketing a few other items, then grabbed Gatomon and headed downstairs into the lobby where a soldier in fatigues was already waiting for her, as was another plain sedan that took off the moment she was seated and drove her to some official looking building on a part of the base she hadn't been to before.

Another soldier helped her out of the car and led Hikari to a spacious conference room that contained a table big enough to seat twenty, an empty mug and a bottle of water placed next to each seat, with Captain Ishida seated at the head of the table. He glanced up when the door opened and nodded in greeting at Hikari, directing her to take any seat she wanted whilst her escort left.

'Are the others coming as well?' she asked, noting the abundance of places for people to sit.

'With any luck,' Ishida said. 'My people have extended invitations to them all, but whether they accept or not is up to them.'

'You didn't make it seem like I had any choice,' Hikari said.

'Because I knew you'd agree, regardless,' Ishida said.

'Is Daisuke going to be joining us?' Hikari asked.

'No,' Ishida said, shaking his head. 'He's getting some much-needed rest ahead of the next phase in our operations. Pending the outcome of what's discussed here, you might see him again.'

'Good,' Hikari said. She paused and looked down at Gatomon, who looked back at her, then turned to Ishida again and said, 'Did you speak to him at all about that night?'

'Which one?' Ishida said.

'You know,' Hikari said, tapping the spot on her head where the fracture was. '_That_ night.'

'Ah,' Ishida said, realisation dawning on him. He glanced at Gatomon as well, as though debating whether or not to continue. Hikari hadn't told her partner, or anyone for that matter, just what Daisuke had tried to do to her back on base, or what Ishida had said to her afterwards about his motivations behind it, because she couldn't figure out a way to properly explain it to them.

'Yes,' he said after a moment's thought. 'Though Daisuke claims to have no recollection of the event, likely due to both inebriation and his head trauma. I left it at that.'

'Okay,' Hikari said.

'What are you two talking about?' Gatomon said, glancing between the two humans. 'Did something happen between you and Daisuke the night you tripped and fell?'

'Kind of,' Hikari said, forcing what she hoped was a natural looking smile onto her face. 'We had a bit of a disagreement and both of us tripped and fell during it. He was a little bit drunk and certain… things were said, and we might have gotten a little physical.'

'He didn't hurt you, did he?' Gatomon said, flashing her claws. 'Because if he did…'

She let that threat linger in the air even as Hikari tried to wave her off, saying, 'No, no, nothing serious. If anything, I probably hurt him more.'

It felt wrong to mislead Gatomon like this, but Hikari couldn't bring herself to lie outright to her partner so the next best thing was bending the truth a little. Everything she had said was true, from a certain point of view to use that space wizard's words from the Star Wars films. She and Daisuke had disagreed on him having his way with her, they had both definitely spoken several words, and they had both tripped after a physical altercation between them.

And, Hikari was sure she had caused him more pain, just not of a physical nature. She recalled her texts to him and his answers, and everything that implied.

'So long as you let me at him if he does anything to you in the future,' Gatomon said, putting her claws away.

'I will,' Hikari said, smiling.

'Though if you could wait until after we're done with the Dark Ocean, I'd appreciate it,' Ishida said. 'It wouldn't do us any good if Daisuke can't operate the suit because he's been shredded to pieces. Assuming, of course, he actually does anything.'

He met Hikari's eyes over the top of Gatomon's head and she offered a weak smile that came off as nervous, and then all three of them looked up as the door into the conference room opened up to reveal the first of the other arrivals, Koushiro and Mimi, plus their Digimon, and the rest of the DigiDestined filed in over the next fifteen minutes or so, splitting into three distinct groups.

On one side of the table was Hikari, Miyako, Ken and Iori, clustered together, followed by a lonesome twosome of Joe and Sora, and then the rest who had sided with Taichi. Takeru was sat with her brother but he didn't even so much as glance at her when he walked in, slouching low in his seat with both arms folded across his chest.

Hikari was sure she heard him mutter something about Daisuke not being present, or her 'new boyfriend' to use his words, but she duly ignored him as Ishida stood before the head of the table, looking at everyone in turn.

'There's been some developments,' he began. 'For those of who you might not have been paying attention to the news, it has now been a full two days since the last attack by an infected Digimon anywhere in the world. Whilst this might be of some comfort to the public, our reaction is much different.

'It means that outside of the ones in this room and some scattered survivors, there are no more Digimon partnered to humans here in the real world, which is something we believe has been one of the Dark Ocean's main goals for some time.'

'And you think this means the Dark Ocean is going to move onto the next part of their plans,' Koushiro said. 'Right?'

'Yes,' Ishida said with a nod. 'What that is, exactly, is still being hotly debated by the brass.'

'I thought you knew that already,' Taichi said. 'You told us they were going to invade us.'

'I said that was a likely scenario,' Ishida said. 'We still don't know for certain that's what they have planned. It could just as easily be total eradication of humanity as a species from the Earth. Three-thousand Digimon is more than enough to cause that, attacking volcanic hotspots and fault lines, even nuclear power stations for that atomic wasteland vibe.

'We're only saying it's likely invasion because at least that means there'd be people alive to fight back against them.'

'So you brought us here to tell us that,' Taichi said. 'That you know nothing.'

'No, I brought you here to appraise you of developments,' Ishida said. 'And that's what I am doing. I've told you about the first one, and now I'm going to tell you about the next.

'For the past few weeks, a joint force has been establishing a base of operations in the Digital World ready for launching an offensive against the Dark Ocean, amassing everything we need. My unit, including Daisuke, is set to ship out there tomorrow and I wondered if you wanted to tag along.'

'Why?' Takeru asked dourly. 'It's not like you want us fighting alongside you.'

'No, I don't,' Ishida said. 'But as I mentioned before, your Digimon are the only ones left that have human partners. I can only assume the Dark Ocean did that for a reason, and I'd like to keep an eye on them somewhere away from population centres. If they do turn, and there's nothing to say they won't, there'd be more than enough soldiers to contain them.'

'You mean kill them,' Takeru said, holding Patamon close.

'Should it come to that, yes,' Ishida said before he turned to the whole group. 'I'm not forcing you to go. I'm simply making this offer as a courtesy, and you'd be under no obligation to stay there should you accompany us.'

'What if we wanted to fight?' Taichi asked.

'Then you'd be free to do so,' Ishida said. 'Just bear in mind that the same warning I gave you during our first meeting still stands. Your Digimon will be fired upon if they become infected.'

'You mean you still haven't come up with some sort of program to prevent that?' Koushiro said.

'No,' Ishida said, shaking his head. 'Whoever or whatever did a very good job of creating this infection. It's defied our every attempt at containing it, so unless you've come up with something…?'

'No,' Koushiro said. 'I'm still nowhere close to a breakthrough, either.'

'Then we have nothing to prevent your partners from becoming infected,' Ishida said. 'So if you do feel the need to join the fray, I ask that your keep them at or below Ultimate level.'

'But what if the situation calls for them to be Mega?' Taichi asked. 'What if your forces are being overrun?'

'Then we retreat,' Hikari said, glancing at her brother. 'The Dark Ocean would kill to get control of Omnimon, or any of the others. You should know that.'

'What, we let them win?' Taichi said.

'We let them win _that_ battle,' Ishida said, shrugging. 'In all likelihood, it would by a pyrrhic victory for them if they did. The amount of troops currently stationed in the Digital World would require the Dark Ocean to send a sizeable percentage of their forces to eliminate them all, and they'd probably lose more than half in the process.

'Meanwhile, our survivors would retreat back to friendly lines to reinforce and resupply, and use what we learned to increase our lethality in the next engagement. Loss today doesn't make for loss tomorrow, and the same is true of the inverse. History is replete with examples of a superior force winning a battle, but at such a great cost it led to their defeat afterwards. I can get you a list of them, if you want some reading materials…'

Taichi grunted in response and shrugged Ishida off, turning away, which the officer didn't seem bothered by at all. He looked to the rest of the group in case they had anything else to add or ask, getting nothing but silence, so he nodded and said, 'Okay, then. We'll be embarking for the Digital World tomorrow at noon from the hangar we first met in. If you wish to join us, be there. If not, don't be.'

With that they all stood, shuffling to their feet and grabbing their partners to start the long journey back to Odaiba, except for Hikari who remained sat in her seat until everyone was gone and it was just her, Gatomon and Captain Ishida in the room.

'Would you want me to go to the staging area as well?' she asked. 'I know I'm supposed to be kept away from the Dark Ocean's forces and everything, but you said if we wanted to go, we could.'

'Honestly, I'm debating that,' Ishida said, dumping himself into his seat. 'On the one hand, you'd be away from a location we know will have access to the Dark Ocean. On the other, Daisuke would be with us and he's our best option for keeping you safe. Either way I'm risking you being abducted by the Dark Ocean. I'm just not sure which is the bigger risk.'

'Well, I want to go,' Hikari said. 'That way I can find something to help out with, can't I?'

'I want to go, too,' Gatomon said, raising her paw into the air.

Ishida nodded once. 'Okay, then. A car will be by at eight tomorrow morning to pick you up.'


	21. Chapter 21

Twenty-One

Everyone turned up the next day at the trio of hangars, carrying bags packed with clothes and camping equipment in case there was nowhere for them to sleep at night, and again they broke off into their three groups as they milled about on the tarmac apron alongside a hundred or more soldiers, each of whom was fully kitted out with all of their equipment, rifles slung over their shoulders.

Hikari's eyes in particular were drawn towards Daisuke as he lingered nearby, wearing his suit of armour and leaning against one of the armoured vehicles that the company would be taking with them. He didn't seem to be awake, doing a good impression of a statue, his visor fixed on a random spot on the ground before him.

'Why don't you go and talk to him?' Miyako said, nudging her friend in the back. 'You've been staring at him for a while now.'

'I wouldn't know what to say,' Hikari said.

'Hello might be a good start,' Ken said, laughing softly. 'And asking him how he is.'

'Why aren't you doing that?' Hikari asked. 'He's your best friend, after all.'

'Oh, we spoke plenty last night,' Ken said. 'He just called me out of the blue.'

'How did he sound?' Hikari asked.

'Better,' Ken said with a nod. 'Without these infected Digimon to deal with, he's been able to get some proper sleep in, and food. He sounded a bit more like the Daisuke we knew.'

'That's good to know,' Hikari said, glancing over her shoulder at the immobile figure. The last time she had actually spoken with Daisuke was when he had mistaken her for Saori Amaki, and the last instance of communication between them was the texts they had shared the day after.

'Go on,' Miyako said, placing her hand in the small of Hikari's back to push her towards Daisuke. 'Say hi, or whatever.'

'Maybe I will,' Hikari said. She hesitated then set Gatomon down on the floor, saying, 'You stay here, okay? I want to talk to him alone.'

'If that's what you want,' Gatomon said. 'I'll be right here if he does anything.'

'I'm sure he won't,' Hikari said, offering a smile.

It faded when she stood and turned to face Daisuke, aware of Takeru's watchful gaze as she strode over to him and the narrowing of his eyes when he saw where she was headed. For his part, Daisuke seemed unmoved by her arrival, simply raising his head to look at her with his featureless visor without saying a word.

'Hi,' Hikari said after a moment. 'How are you?'

'I've been better,' was Daisuke's low reply.

'I guess so,' Hikari said. 'Better than the past few months, at least? Ken said you'd been able to get some proper sleep now the attacks have stopped.'

Daisuke nodded. 'I have.'

'That's good,' Hikari said. 'Right?'

'Yes,' Daisuke said.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence at that, Daisuke's faceless helmet boring into Hikari who grew uncomfortable beneath it, squirming slightly. She wanted to ask him about his time with Saori, actually, and his admission of once having deep feelings for her, but there were too many people around for her liking to ask that, in particular Takeru who continued to glower at the pair as they stood next to each other.

She glanced his way and Daisuke did as well, saying, 'Your boyfriend doesn't look to happy to see us together.'

'He's not my boyfriend,' Hikari said quietly. 'Not anymore.'

'And here I thought the two of you were destined to be together forever,' Daisuke said. 'What happened? Did you forget to say you loved him a hundred times a day? Or did he get you the wrong bouquet of flowers?'

'No,' Hikari said. 'We had an… argument.'

'About some petty crap, I'm sure,' Daisuke muttered.

'Actually, it was about two years ago,' Hikari said. 'How neither of us can remember the specifics of what we did to find you, but I'm the only one troubled by the fact. Takeru seems to still think we went out looking for you all, even though wasn't able to name a single time we did when I pressed him for it.'

'How did he explain it away, then?' Daisuke asked as he leaned back against the armoured vehicle, arms folded across his chest as best he could despite the blocky armour he wore.

'That there was too much going on then for him to remember everything,' Hikari said. 'That some things were bound to slip through.'

'Sure,' Daisuke said, casting a dirty look Takeru's way. 'He forgets looking for us but remembers helping Koushiro pick out some clothes to catch Mimi's attention.'

He gave a disdainful grunt and fixed his gaze back on Hikari who said, 'That's why I broke up with him, because he treated his lack of memory like it was something trivial and refused to admit he might be wrong about this.'

'So he's not Mr Perfect after all,' Daisuke said.

'I never claimed he was,' Hikari said.

'Uh-huh,' Daisuke said, shrugging. 'Well, if you're thinking of replacing him with me you're too late. About two years too late.'

'Oh, yeah?' Hikari said, her tone growing sharp. 'Saori Amaki and all those other girls you hired beg to differ.'

She hadn't meant to say that and in so aggressive a manner, but Daisuke's flippant attitude towards her as she tried to speak with him had just gotten to her so much that it came out without her even thinking, and the moment the words left her mouth Hikari knew a grave error had been made.

Daisuke's head twitched ever so slightly at the mention of the call girl who looked so much like her and his hand clenched into a fist, as though he planned to strike her, but he forced it to unclench as he said, 'What do you care about who I sleep with?'

'You know why,' Hikari said softly. 'What you put in that text-'

'-was true years ago,' Daisuke said, interrupting. 'It's not now.'

'Is it?' Hikari said. 'Is it really?'

He didn't answer, shifting his attention to the hangars where Captain Ishida was supposed to be coming out of in the next few minutes.

'We need to talk about that,' Hikari pressed.

'Do we?' Daisuke said without looking at her.

'Yes,' Hikari said, placing a hand on his arm. 'You said you did love me, after all.'

'Yeah,' Daisuke said softly as the hangar doors finally opened and Captain Ishida came strolling out. 'Did.'

He shrugged her hand off and made his way over to the captain, leaving Hikari to wander back over to Miyako and Ken with a resigned look on her face.

'That looks like it could have gone better,' Miyako said as Hikari scooped Gatomon up and hugged her. 'What happened?'

'I don't want to talk about it,' Hikari said. 'But at least we can definitely say I won't be dating Daisuke any time soon.'

'That's… kind of a relief?' Miyako said.

'I guess so,' Hikari muttered. She sighed and hugged Gatomon closer as the soldiers around her grabbed whatever gear they had lying on the floor and formed up into their squads and platoons in front of the middle hangar, Ishida at the head of the formation with Daisuke by his side.

Behind them the hangar door opened to reveal some strange apparatus that looked like someone had taken a widescreen television, attached it to a frame that bore a projector, and filled the rest of the space with cables of various thickness and blinking LED bulbs. A portal to the Digital World was present on the screen and a number of soldiers brought out Digivices of their own, the older style held by the original DigiDestined, and pointed them at the device.

Hikari and the others did as well, a bright flash erupting from the projector when they did and soon enough, she felt the familiar sensation of her body being absorbed into the alternate realm known as the Digital World. When the light faded, she found herself standing on an open plain surrounded by all the soldiers from before, plus countless hundreds more to her left and right in similar formations to the ones she had travelled with.

'Mount up!' Ishida called from the front of the group, making a circular motion in the air with his finger as he strode towards a waiting vehicle. 'We're Oscar Mike in two!'

The soldiers responded instantly, making for their assigned vehicle and climbing into the back or hauling themselves up on top behind the turrets, looking like something from an old war photo of Allied troops riding their tanks into battle. Once they were secure, they turned around and helped the DigiDestined up. At least, those that chose to ride with the soldiers. Some of them preferred to take to the skies with their partners, or run alongside, but Hikari was not one of them.

Burly hands grabbed hold of hers and hauled Hikari up onto the roof of the nearest vehicle and she found herself sat next to Sergeant Major Ito who took her bag and strapped it into place next to his, hanging off the side of the vehicle that lurched into motion when he slapped the roof twice.

'Nice of you to join us,' Ito said, bracing himself against the turret. 'I thought for sure you'd be taking to the skies with Gatomon here.'

'I wouldn't be able to ask you about what I see if did that,' Hikari said.

'True,' Ito said. 'Well, ask away.'

Hikari nodded as she looked around at the plain they had materialised onto, seeing four hangars set up off to one side with armoured vehicles spread between them, plus a dozen or so of the televisions that acted as links between here and the real world. In all honesty, it disappointed her a little after what she had seen from the JSDF's operations back home and from what Ishida had said.

'Is this it?' she said, pointing at the structures.

Ito laughed and said, 'No. This is just a forward operating base and transition point for large formations, one of six or so spread around the perimeter. The main bulk of it all, what we call Alpha Base, is beyond that hill.'

He pointed to the land in front of them as it rose up slightly, not more than forty or fifty metres above everything else, a rough road worn into it from who knew how many thousands of vehicles driving along it. Their vehicles followed the ruts and when they crested the hill, Hikari saw a sprawling mass of buildings and tents off in the distance that looked more like what she was expecting.

'Optics,' Ito called out to the troops below, grabbing a heavy set of binoculars someone held up and handing them to Hikari who raised them to her eyes, the base seeming to jump instantly closer so she could make out some of the finer details.

'Not exactly an original name,' Gatomon said from Hikari's lap. 'Couldn't think of anything better?'

'Hey, we've got half a dozen different countries hoping to house their soldiers down there,' Ito said. 'You try coming up with a name that everyone can agree on.'

'Who's down there?' Hikari asked.

'So far?' Ito said. 'Us, the Americans and the British. We're supposed to be getting Russians and maybe some Chinese troops within the week, but their political masters are dragging their heels until certain favours are granted. Or so I hear.'

'What kind of favours?' Hikari asked as she switched from one part of Alpha Base to the other, trying her best to see what was what despite the rocking of the vehicle.

'Whatever they can get,' Ito said with a shrug. 'Trade deals, technology transfers, political clout. The usual quid pro quo bullshit that's been happening since time began.'

'That's nice of them,' Hikari said as the binoculars washed over an airfield, only to sweep back and examine the planes sitting on the runways in disbelief. 'I thought we flew jet planes.'

'We do,' Ito said. 'Normally. I take it you're looking at our air support.'

'Yeah,' Hikari said. 'They look like something out of the Second World War.'

Which they did. On the runway were about thirty planes spread out along the field, though they looked like the old fighters that had duked it out in the skies above Europe and the Pacific over sixty years ago rather the sleek, modern jets of today, which made sort of sense in a way. Modern fighting machines relied on delicate electronics to operate and as had been demonstrated several times in the past, powerful Digimon had adverse effects on such components.

Even so, she was surprised that the various military outfits had built them in response to the Digimon attacks rather than modify what they already had to withstand disruption.

'I like the British ones the most,' Ito said. 'I know I'm supposed to root for the Japanese planes, and the Americans have got the most power and agility, but the Brits sure do make theirs look pretty.'

'Which ones are they?' Hikari asked.

'The ones with a bullseye on the side,' Ito said, shaking his head. 'Those crazy, brave bastards.'

Hikari had to agree with him on that one, thinking the roundel on the side of the British aircraft did indeed look like a bullseye for the other pilot to aim at compared to the almost solid red of the Japanese planes and the five-pointed star of the Americans, though she couldn't tell which of the planes was the prettiest in her opinion. They all looked the same to her.

'Crazy, indeed,' Hikari said. 'Are they recreations of old models?'

'Not that I know of,' Ito said. 'Could be. Ask one of the pilots if you see them.'

She nodded and panned to another section of Alpha Base where more armoured vehicles were lined up inside holes in the ground, something Ito called being hull down when asked, with smaller holes spread around them for the soldiers to shoot from. Elsewhere, soldiers tinkered with field guns and the smaller mortars, artillery support, or flak cannons for dealing with flying Digimon.

'It's certainly big,' Hikari said. 'How many people are down there?'

'Fifty-thousand,' Ito said. 'Most of those are from the Americans who sent two army divisions, a Marine regiment and some squadrons from their Navy and Air Force. The British sent two divisions from their army but they tend to be smaller, only ten-thousand bodies in each, plus a couple squadrons from the RAF. The rest are from us, around a single regiment worth of troops, but we've got Daisuke to tip the balance.'

Hikari lowered the binoculars and looked up at him as he flew overwatch on the convoy, tracing a lazy circle above her vehicle in particular, and averted her gaze back onto the ground below as it sped past a few seconds later. She wanted to talk to him more about his admission of once having feelings for her, and to apologise for her comment about Saori and the others, though that seemed unlikely. Even if Captain Ishida, or whoever was now in charge, didn't give him new deployment orders Daisuke could just vanish into the sprawling mess that was Alpha Base.

She offered a soft sigh and handed the binoculars back to Ito, who passed them off to someone else, and spent the rest of the ride watching Alpha Base grow larger and larger in her sight until they reached the outermost later of structures, mostly tents and sandbag revetments, dropping into a maze-like warren of rudimentary streets filled with soldiers dressed in camouflage fatigues with pistols on their thighs and rifles in their hands.

Some called out in greeting when the Japanese convoy passed by, shouting in particular to Daisuke who had dropped to just a few metres above the top of the vehicles. If he heard them, he gave no sign and flew onwards until the column of vehicles reached an open space within the base, joining several others already parked up.

Daisuke dropped to the ground next to Ishida as the captain dismounted, his subordinates shouting out orders to their personnel and directing them towards on building in particular. Ito helped Hikari down and into her bag, then ran off to shout at his troops about falling in line. She watched him go then hurried to join the others as they gravitated towards Ishida and Daisuke, the only familiar faces in this place, who pivoted on their heels once everyone was gathered and aimed for one building, seemingly at random.

The DigiDestined followed them in and eventually came out into another conference room, though unlike yesterday there were no refreshments on offer and there was more than just Captain Ishida sitting at the head of the table. Three soldiers, all of them westerners, were flicking through reports and smoking cigars when Ishida, Daisuke and the DigiDestined entered, barely glancing up to look at them.

'This them?' one of the soldiers said in Japanese, an American judging by his accent.

'Yes, sir,' Ishida said. 'All eleven, plus Sergeant Motomiya.'

'Very good,' the soldier said, closing his folder and tossing it onto the table as he finally deigned to take a look at everyone as they filed into the room and stood behind a chair at the table. 'My name is General Elwood, US Army. This is General Boyd, British Army, and that's Colonel Flint, US Marines. Take a seat.'

The three officers watched them shrug out of their rucksacks and sit down, each of them giving the DigiDestined various disdainful looks as they did so with Flint's in particular having a great deal of animosity for the group.

'So,' Elwood said. 'You're the great and powerful Japanese DigiDestined, huh? The best of the best, the top percent.'

'Yes,' Taichi said. 'And look, if you're gonna do what Ishida's done and make fun of us-'

'Shut it, turd,' Flint said, cutting in with a snarl. 'You've got no right on dictating how we talk to you, not anymore. You lost it the moment you decided to sit back and watch as innocent lives were lost. The only one of you I got any respect for now is Motomiya. He was the only one out this whole group fighting alongside my Marines when the Digimon started showing up in Oceanside. Where the fuck were the rest of you, huh? Where?

'Fucking turds, the lot of you.'

Flint spat something foul onto the floor and glowered at the group, daring them to rise to his challenge, and he uttered a disgusted grunt when none did.

'Eloquent, as always,' Boyd said.

'Oh, like what you call them is any better,' Flint said. 'What was it? Cunts?'

'Once upon a time,' Boyd said with a shrug. 'But then I realised cunts have uses. This lot doesn't.'

'And what, pray tell, do you call them now?' Elwood said, not even trying to hide a growing smirk.

'Well, following in this jarhead's example, I think shit stains is appropriate,' Boyd said. 'Don't you?'

'I've no complaints,' Flint said, turning to look at the general with a grin. 'Outside of the whole jarhead thing.'

'Agreed,' Elwood said. He turned to the DigiDestined and added, 'Now the pleasantries are out of the way, perhaps we can start discussing the more pressing matters. Within the next few days, perhaps a full week, we'll be starting combat operations against the Dark Ocean.'

On the wall was a map of the area someone had made, showing most of the major geographical features including a small section where Alpha Base was located, and another where a series of crosses were arranged in a rough circle a few miles away from a massive body of water. Elwood withdrew a laser pointer and used it to highlight the crosses.

'This is a section of the Digital World that has, shall we say, thin walls between it and the Dark Ocean,' he said. 'Our engineers have managed to create devices that should, hopefully, replicate the distortion effect of the Control Spires to further weaken these walls, allowing us to open up a portal between here and the Dark Ocean. With that done, we move troops in and start the next phase.'

'You're going to mount an invasion of the Dark Ocean?' Takeru said. 'Are you serious?'

'Technically we're conducting reconnaissance by fire,' Boyd said. 'Our primary goal at this point is to gather as much information as we can about the Dark Ocean, and implement that into future operations, but it's also to bloody the nose of whatever lives there. They've spent the past two years destroying out home. I think it's time we did the same.'

'My regiment will make the initial breach,' Flint said. 'Plus Daisuke for backup, and spend six hours learning what we can before slipping back to friendly lines. If things get too heated, we retreat and regroup. Simple.'

'I doubt it will be,' Taichi muttered. 'This is the Dark Ocean we're talking about.'

'Perhaps,' Elwood said. 'But we can't just ignore it until the last possible second, like you all have been.'

'If you're asking for our help, you going about it a funny way,' Taichi said.

'We're not asking for your help,' Elwood said. 'If anything, we'd be much happier if you sat this out. The only reason Captain Ishida asked if you'd like to come here was purely as a courtesy, and so that should your Digimon become infected we'll have the means of dealing with them close at hand.

'Unless you said otherwise, captain?'

'No, sir,' Ishida said with a shake of his head. 'I said exactly as you did. They've been told that staying here is voluntary, as is participation in the battle provided they stay at Ultimate or below. Anyone can go at any point, even now if they wanted to. They won't be stopped.'

Nobody made a move to go, not even Taichi or Takeru who seemed the most annoyed and irritated out of the whole group, so Elwood nodded vaguely and said, 'Very well. If you mean to stay here, there are quarters set aside for you. I expect you all to be well behaved whilst on base. Otherwise, your sleeping arrangements will become suspect.'

He dismissed them all with a wave of his hand and opened his folder up again, picking up where he had left off, and the DigiDestined got to their feet and grabbed their bags, shrugging them back into place on their shoulders as they filed out of the door. Hikari made a move to follow them but stopped when Ishida motioned for her to stay put, Daisuke too, and he ushered them out of the conference room into the hallway outside to have a private word with them.

'Neither of you are going to like this,' Ishida began. 'But you're being billeted in the same room.'


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

He was right. Neither of them liked that.

They tried to argue, once the shock had worn off, against the sleeping arrangements but Ishida was steadfast in his decision, stating that until the threat of the Dark Ocean was dealt with Daisuke couldn't be more than fifty metres away from her at any point, day or night, meaning that for the foreseeable future they'd be sharing a room.

Hikari followed Daisuke into it and dumped her bag onto one of the beds present, taking in the space that was to be her latest home. It was modest enough, though compared to the hotel room it came up lacking, with two beds on either side of the room with footlockers at the end of them. In one corner was an en suite that contained a plain toilet and cheap shower, and in the other was a charging port for Daisuke's suit.

He made no effort to step out of it even as he slung his rucksack onto the bed, staring at the scene before him with his back to Hikari.

'Aren't you going to take the suit off?' she said.

'I'd rather not,' Daisuke said.

'Why?' Hikari said. 'I'm not planning on leaving the room for a long while, so you might as well take it off whilst we're here.'

'No thanks,' Daisuke said.

'You're not going to sleep in it,' Hikari said when Daisuke still made no move to do anything but stare at his bed. 'Are you?'

'Wouldn't be the first time,' he said quietly.

Hikari looked at him for a second then sighed and turned her back on him, grabbing her bag and undoing the flaps to get at the clothes inside. If Daisuke wanted to act like a child and hide inside his armour, she wasn't going to stop him, but that didn't mean she couldn't be irritated by his actions. After all, she wanted to have some kind of conversation with him about things and it would be hard to do that if he, literally, put up a barrier between them.

She began to pull the clothes out, starting with the oversized T-shirt Captain Ishida had provided for her the first night she had spent on base. He had added it to her suitcase as a joke, presumably, and Hikari held it for a moment as she remembered Takeru saying it looked better on the floor than it did on her. Less than a week later, they had broken up and he was accusing her of sleeping with Daisuke.

The teen in question was still standing immobile behind her, encased in armour, apparently content to do nothing to make this room into his home.

'Are we going to have any issues?' she asked, tossing the T-shirt off to one side.

'Like what?' Daisuke said.

'Like that night,' Hikari said. 'The one where we both tripped and hit our heads.'

'I don't remember that night,' Daisuke said curtly.

'Captain Ishida told me as much,' Hikari said. 'But that's not what I'm asking. I wanted to know if we'd have a similar issue, now we're sharing a room.'

She glanced over her shoulder to look at Daisuke and saw his head had turned slightly, perhaps enough to see her from the corner of his eye, and he said, 'No. We won't have any issues like that.'

'Okay,' Hikari said. She pulled out another T-shirt, a more normal and properly fitting one, but she kept hold of it as she asked, 'Can we talk about Saori and the others, at least?'

'No,' Daisuke said. 'I don't want to.'

'I do,' Hikari said. 'Stuff like that's not exactly something you can just ignore, Daisuke. You have to understand that, at least.'

He seemed to give a noncommittal shrug as Gatomon asked Hikari who this Saori was but she didn't answer, ignoring the Digimon for the moment, whilst Daisuke said in a soft voice, 'You don't always get what you want, Hikari. Just look at me.'

'Can I at least know when you first realised it?' she asked.

'Does it matter?' Daisuke said.

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'It does.'

He gave another of those noncommittal shrugs and said, 'MaloMyotismon.'

That was a shock, to say the least. Hikari had figured that he fell for her in the months prior to his disappearance or perhaps the weeks after being rescued, not four years ago, and she turned to face him as she thought back over all the time they had spent together since defeating that monster. At no point did she suspect his true feelings towards her, and neither had anyone else around her for that matter.

'That long?' she whispered, floored by the revelation.

'Yes,' Daisuke said softly.

'Is that why you asked me out?' she asked as she turned to face him.

'Yes,' Daisuke said again, his tone unchanged.

He finally moved and turned her way, but like their initial reunion that felt like years ago in the Yagami apartment his gaze was fixed on a point adjacent to her, as though he was unable or unwilling to look at her directly. Gatomon was another matter, his attention fixing onto the cat Digimon when she stood up on the bed and asked, loudly, 'What are you guys talking about? What does or doesn't matter? What did you realise?'

'You haven't told her?' Daisuke said, keeping his attention on Gatomon.

'No,' Hikari said. 'I haven't told anyone yet. I wanted to talk to you about it, first.'

'So tell her,' Daisuke said. 'I won't stop you.'

Hikari spared him an annoyed glance as she grabbed Gatomon and put her in her lap, the Digimon looking up at her with those blue eyes, and said, 'Daisuke was in love with me.'

'That's what you were talking about?' Gatomon said, surprised, but not as much as Hikari expected.

'You don't seem that shocked,' she said.

'It's not like I didn't already know,' Gatomon said. 'He's been like it since you were little kids, remember? Why are you getting so worked up about it, though? It's just a crush.'

'No, it's not,' Hikari said. 'Daisuke has, or had I should probably say, actual feelings for me, Gatomon. He really was in love with me.'

'Oh,' Gatomon said. '_Oh_.'

Now the surprise came, her eyes widening in response. She craned her neck around to look at him as he remained standing across from them, his expression inscrutable from behind that blackened visor of his suit, though to Hikari he seemed resigned, or defeated, like actually hearing her say it aloud to someone other than him meant he could no longer run from it or ignore it.

'That's why you were so hard on Hikari,' Gatomon said. 'More than the others.'

'Yes,' Daisuke whispered. 'It was bad enough being abandoned by people I thought were my friends, but to be left for dead by someone I actually loved?'

He shifted his attention from Gatomon to her directly and said, 'I loved you, Hikari.'

'Daisuke, I'm so sorry,' she said back, about the only thing she could think to say. 'Why didn't you say something to me before?'

'Because it wouldn't have mattered,' he said, his tone growing sharp. 'No matter what I tried, no matter what I said or did, I was always this buffoon to you and everyone else. If I had come out and confessed my feelings, I bet you would have laughed it off thinking it was some joke.

'Then, you go and date some blonde pretty boy who didn't put half as much effort into showing how he really felt about you compared to me. I just about wanted to die when you announced it to everyone.'

'You said you were okay with it,' Hikari said.

'Obviously I lied,' Daisuke said. 'Wouldn't have been the first time I did.'

'Not for something that huge,' Hikari said.

Daisuke scoffed and said, 'Oh, yeah? You sure believed me when I said MaloMyotismon's Phantom Illusion had no effect on me.'

That stunned Hikari into silence, as it did Gatomon. For all these years they had believed their victory over MaloMyotismon was due simply to Daisuke's immunity to his illusion spell, how his lack of insecurities and determination to destroy the evil Digimon was what had allowed him to shrug the attack off like he had, but it seemed today was a day for one shocking revelation after another.

'What did it show you?' Hikari asked, fearful of the answer.

'Us,' Daisuke said, gesturing between them both. 'We were older, in our twenties if I had to guess, living in our own apartment with rings on our fingers and a baby on the way. That was it. Nothing special or extravagant, just the two of us living life as a couple in love, a warm smile on your face that I could never grow tired of looking at.

'MaloMyotismon showed me that the one thing I wanted in life was for you to be happy, and to be the one that made it so.'

His voice had grown soft, the previously sharp tone becoming almost downright melancholy as Daisuke revealed this secret he had carried for four years without telling a single soul. He gave an almost inaudible sigh and went on to say, 'But soon enough I realised that it wasn't to be. You and Takeru were destined to be together, he was the one meant to bring about that smile, and I grew so angry with MaloMyotismon that destroying him became my greatest desire. The rest is history.'

'Except the part where you lied to us,' Hikari said.

'Yeah,' Daisuke said distantly.

He sighed as a click and a hiss sounded from his suit, the back half opening up to deposit him onto the bed where he sat with a forlorn, vacant expression on his face, staring at nothing and looking so lost to Hikari she couldn't help but feel an urge to walk over and give him a comforting hug, to tell him everything would be okay, but she doubted he'd appreciate that coming from her.

'Did you ever care for me?' he murmured.

'Of course,' Hikari said. 'You're my friend.'

'Then why didn't you come look for me?' Daisuke said. 'Or didn't you care enough to?'

'I can't explain it,' Hikari said quietly, averting her gaze off the near catatonic Daisuke as he swayed slightly. 'I just can't, Daisuke. Every fibre of my being tells me that I would have never abandoned you like that, not now and not ever, and I am struggling to think of a reason why I did just that.'

Tears began to spill over from her eyes and land in her lap, her hands clenching into fists. Why had she? Why had she not cared that four close friends of hers had simply vanished into thin air for several months like that?

'I'm so sorry, Daisuke,' she whispered. 'I am so, so sorry.'

'It's too late for sorry,' Daisuke said. 'If you had cared, you would have looked. If you had looked, I wouldn't be the pilot for the suit.'

'Are you saying it's my fault you're here?' she said, a newfound fear gripping her heart as she snapped her head back to Daisuke. 'Please, no. Don't say it. Please don't. Don't say it's my fault.'

'But it is,' Daisuke said. 'It's your fault I'm here. It's your fault any of this is happening. If you'd just come looking for me, I wouldn't have felt so betrayed to accept Captain Ishida's offer. If you'd just made some kind of effort when I went missing, there'd be somebody else in that suit other than me! This is all your fault, Hikari Yagami!'

He jumped to his feet and pointed an accusatory finger at her, his voice almost a scream, but all Hikari could feel was unbridled terror that one more detail from her nightmare had come true. First it had been the burnt skeletal remains, then the ruined buildings of Odaiba and Daisuke wearing the suit, and now this. He was telling her everything that had happened to him, all the hardships he had gone through, was the fault of her inaction. How soon would it be before he was killed, fighting against some gigantic tentacled creature?

She trembled and went pale as Daisuke continued to stand over her with a glare fixed onto his face, and she said, 'Don't go with them to the Dark Ocean, Daisuke. Please. Don't go. You'll die if you do.'

'Why?' he said. 'Because you saw it in your dreams?'

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'Too much of that has come true, especially now we're so close to entering the Dark Ocean. If you go through with the Marines you'll encounter some giant creature, maybe even a Digimon, and it'll be made up tentacles and one of them will pierce your chest and kill you.'

'It's a little late to start caring,' Daisuke said.

'I don't want to lose you.'

Hikari surprised herself and Daisuke by standing up and grabbing tight hold of his shoulders, staring right into his eyes as tears flowed fast and free from hers whilst she spoke. His mouth dropped open in surprise and whatever comment he had to fling her way died on his tongue, a short gasp being all that he made by way of noise.

'I've already lost too many people I care about because of this thing,' she whispered. 'I broke up with Takeru and I can barely stand to even look at Taichi now, and I'm drifting away from the others because they still believe they looked for you.

'So please, Daisuke. Don't let me lose you, too.'

Then she kissed him, another move that shocked her and one, she reasoned, was driven purely by her emotional state, plus maybe a little guilt and sympathy for Daisuke after all these years of misery he had gone through because of her. He seemed as shocked as her, if not more so, offering no resistance to her lips pressing up against his. If anything, though it could just as easily have been wishful thinking on Hikari's part, he leaned into the kiss slightly as his hands came up and gently grasped her shoulders.

She broke the kiss and waited with no small amount of apprehension, embarrassed that she had done such a thing to Daisuke out of the blue like that, for him to say or do something in response.

'I loved you once,' he eventually said, gently, his grip on her shoulders tightening slightly. 'And maybe part of me still does, if my choice in call girls is anything to go by, but what you did hurt more than you could ever know. I'm sorry, Hikari. You lost me a long time ago.'

He pushed her back slightly and Hikari felt his shirt slip from between her fingers, a cold feeling sweeping through her as Daisuke's expression fell and he turned away, towards his bed. He didn't so much lie down on it as he did collapse, facing away from her and towards the wall as her legs trembled then gave way, Hikari landing on the floor in an untidy sprawl as tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

Once Gatomon recovered from the stupor brought on by the scene she had just watched, she did her best to coax Hikari onto the bed proper rather than the hard floor, though nothing the Digimon could say or do would bring Hikari out of the trance she found herself in, staring sombrely at Daisuke's back as it shifted slightly with each breath he took, the only indicator he was still alive.

She didn't remember doing anything else for the rest of the day.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

She didn't sleep that night.

It wasn't that the bed was too uncomfortable or the strangeness of her surroundings was too much, but because Hikari spent the time listening to the soft mutters and murmurs, and occasional cry, coming from Daisuke as he dreamt just a few metres across from her. She tried to imagine just what was running through his head but nothing she came up with seemed quite bad enough to account for two years of pain and anguish.

When morning came, a bleary eyed Hikari made her way down to the building's mess hall for breakfast, a suited-up Daisuke behind her, and dumped herself down next to Miyako, Ken and Iori at their table with a bowl of some cereal before her, plus an extra strong mug of coffee.

'Geez, Hikari,' Miyako said. 'You look terrible.'

'Thank you for reminding me,' Hikari mumbled, spooning the bland food into her mouth. 'I didn't get any sleep last night.'

'Did Daisuke's snoring keep you up?' Ken offered.

'I wouldn't have minded if it was that,' Hikari said. 'Share a room with Taichi for a few years and you can sleep through an earthquake.'

'So what was it?' Miyako asked.

'He was crying and muttering in his sleep,' Hikari said.

She glanced at Daisuke as he got himself a tray of food from the counter, a hearty meal piled high with foodstuffs, plus coffee, and sat down in an isolated corner with his back to everyone. Outside of the steward manning the food counter, the only people in the room were the DigiDestined arranged in their groups. Hikari saw Takeru glaring at Daisuke as he stepped out of his suit and sat down, the blonde teen no doubt thinking to himself he and Hikari had spent the night having sex in their room until dawn.

A sigh escaped her lips as she tried to down another spoonful of cereal but her appetite was gone, not that it had ever really been there to begin with.

'Did you at least get to talk to him?' Iori asked. 'You guys have been in that room since we got here. I can't imagine there's much to do but talk.'

'Not if you ask Takeru,' Hikari muttered. 'He seems to think I'm sleeping with Daisuke.'

'He can't be serious,' Iori said.

'I know he took the breakup badly,' Miyako said as beside her, Ken choked on a slice of toast at Hikari's words. 'But inventing that kind of a claim? That's a little extreme.'

'He's just upset,' Hikari said, shrugging. 'It might be more because I was siding with Daisuke and Captain Ishida rather than him about your disappearances. Somehow, that means I'm in love with Daisuke and I spent my first night on base alone sleeping with him.'

'And you weren't,' Ken said. 'Were you?'

'Of course not,' Hikari said.

'You'd tell me if you were, though,' Miyako said.

'Sure,' Hikari said. 'If I ever became that desperate.'

She tried to laugh about it but it fell flat, and Hikari turned to her bowl of cereal again as it became little more than a sodden mess, becoming even less appealing than it had before.

'So what did you do?' Iori asked after a few moments.

'We talked,' Hikari said. 'For a little while, anyway, and we might have shared a kiss…'

She muttered the last part but Miyako made up for it, exploding out of her seat to grab hold of her hands with little regard for the cups and bowls on the table, spilling them, and shouted, 'You and Daisuke did what?'

Hikari felt all eyes in the room, sans Daisuke, swivel to her as Miyako loomed over her, noting in particular as Takeru's face darkened at whatever thoughts were rushing to his mind following Miyako's outburst, his eyes drifting to Daisuke who continued to eat alone, his only companion being the suit standing nearby.

'Miyako, settle down,' Hikari hissed as Ken and Iori did their best to clean up the spillages. 'Everyone's looking at us.'

Which they were, and when Miyako realised that she sat back down and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment before leaning in close to Hikari, plus Ken and Iori, to ask, 'You kissed? As in, his lips on yours?'

'More like mine on his,' Hikari said, going on to describe the subject of her conversation with Daisuke yesterday, including his admission of harbouring deep feelings for her all these years and how, in a moment of pity and guilt and impaired thinking, she had given Daisuke a kiss, much to her immediate regret.

'Then he said I'd lost him,' Hikari finished. 'And collapsed onto his bed. We haven't spoken since then.'

'That's incredible,' Miyako whispered. 'All this time and he's been hiding such a big secret from us.'

'You didn't know anything about it?' Hikari asked Ken who shook his head.

'No,' he said. 'Nothing. Daisuke always acted like MaloMyotismon had no effect on him. I certainly never would have expected this.'

'None of us did,' Hikari said.

She gave a tired sigh and buried her head in her hands, oblivious to Takeru standing and making his way towards Daisuke, empty tray in hand even though the trolley for them was the other way.

'I bet you're happy,' he said to Daisuke when he was close, glaring down at him.

'Actually I'm Daisuke,' he said. 'Not one of the Seven Dwarfs, but if I was one I'd probably be Grumpy right about now.'

'Don't play dumb with me,' Takeru said. 'After all these years of pining after her, you've finally gotten Hikari all to yourself.'

'Have I, now?' Daisuke muttered without even bothering to turn around and look at Takeru, casually sipping at his coffee. 'What makes you so sure of that?'

'All she's been able to think or talk about for the last month now has been you,' Takeru said. 'Then a few days after she goes live on the same base as you, she breaks up with me and gets put in the same room as you whilst we're here, and now I hear you and her did something together. Cut the crap, Daisuke. You're with her now, aren't you?'

'No,' Daisuke said, glancing up at Takeru. 'I have neither had, nor plan to have, any kind of relationship with that girl. Just thinking about it makes me want to retch.'

Hikari raised her head at that comment and stared sadly at Daisuke, stung by the venom in his voice, as everyone in the room turned to look at him and Takeru as they glared at one another, even the steward at the counter.

'What, you think you're too good for her now?' Takeru said.

'Yes,' Daisuke said. 'I've got my eyes on better women than her.'

'Like who?' Takeru said.

'Your mom,' Daisuke said. 'She says she needs a good strong man in her life, someone her youngest son can learn from and-'

The rest was cut off by a solid punch from Takeru, whipping Daisuke's head around, and he went tumbling to the ground in a clatter of cutlery and food as Takeru yelled something incoherent, his fist raised ready to deliver another punch that Daisuke did nothing to block. As it happened, he didn't need to.

His suit, which had been standing off to one side, blurred into action and grabbed hold of Takeru's arm as he swung it down in a vice-like grasp, tight enough that pain flared up on his face as the suit positioned itself between him and Daisuke.

'Threat detected,' it said in a flat, monotone voice. 'Protocol Three in effect: protect Pilot Motomiya. Alert. Threat identified as Takeru Takashi, DigiDestined of Hope. Tag designation friendly. Confirm as threat?'

'Confirm,' Daisuke said from the floor, wiping away a trickle of blood coming from his nose.

'Acknowledged,' the suit said. 'Engaging. Non-lethal countermeasures authorised.'

It pushed Takeru back a step before shocking him, a surge of electricity spreading out from its hand into Takeru's body who screamed in pain as it did, collapsing to his knees when the suit released him and cradling his arm where he had been grabbed. Yamato was by his brother's side in an instant, glaring at Daisuke.

'What the hell was that for?' Yamato said. 'You could have seriously hurt him.'

'He would have deserved it,' Daisuke said as he stood. 'Saying I was sleeping with Hikari. I wouldn't have sex with her even if she got down on all fours and begged me like a bitch.'

That was the wrong thing to say, especially around Taichi. As strained as their relationship might currently be, she was still his baby sister and he still had a duty to protect and look after her, especially when someone insulted her like that, though unfortunately for the elder Yagami sibling he was so blinded by rage that he neglected to recall not scant seconds ago that when Takeru tried to hit Daisuke, his suit responded.

'Additional threat detected,' the suit began. 'Alert. Threat identified-'

'Yes, yes, confirm threat,' Daisuke said, interrupting.

'Acknowledged,' the suit said.

It stepped in front of Daisuke and intercepted Taichi when he came charging over, grabbing him by the throat and zapping him much like Takeru had to make him scream in pain as several thousand volts surged through his system. The suit let go and Taichi fell to his knees, breathing hard and massaging his neck where the suit had held him. He recovered enough to level a deathly glare at Daisuke who threw one back, no longer holding Taichi in any kind of high regard.

Unlike Yamato had done with Takeru, Hikari made no attempt to tend to her brother as he lay sprawled on the floor of the mess hall, recovering. Instead she averted her eyes from the whole thing as though trying to blot it all from her mind.

'You're just gonna sit there and do nothing?' Taichi shouted at her. 'After he called you a bitch?'

'I did no such thing,' Daisuke shot back. 'I said _if_ she crawled and begged me like a bitch, not that she was one. Wow, you memory is really self-'

He didn't get to finish. A loud, resounding smack echoed across the room as everyone fell into silence, stunned by the sight of Hikari getting up from her seat to stride over and slap the side of Daisuke's face hard enough to leave a mark on both his cheek and her hand, the palm of it stinging from the impact which Hikari ignored. She gave him a ferocious glare for a second, cowing him into stunned silence, and then turned to Taichi.

'I should be slapping you as well,' she said to him, mindful of the suit that turned in her direction before hesitating. All of the DigiDestined had been marked as friendly to the onboard AI, but she had been elevated to have the same critical importance as Daisuke, perhaps more so, and it seemed to struggle over whether it should subdue her like Taichi and Takeru or not.

Eventually it elected to do nothing, returning to face Taichi and Takeru on the floor should they try to make a second attempt on Daisuke.

'What are you talking about?' Taichi said.

'I'm talking about you ignoring Daisuke,' Hikari said to him, and then rest of the room. 'Actually, I should be slapping all of you, including myself, because we're all just as guilty as one another. We're the DigiDestined and we're supposed to look after our teammates. Where was that two years ago when four of our own disappeared for three months?

'We should have made it our top priority the moment we saw Imperialdramon taking orders from someone we thought was Ken, back in his Digimon Emperor persona.'

Her chest was heaving in and out from the stress, and at letting everything out, and Hikari fixed each of the original DigiDestined with a withering and disdainful stare that they all looked uneasily away from, even Takeru. The exception was Taichi as he got to his feet and took half a step towards Hikari, stopping when the suit, still thinking of him as a threat, moved to stand between them. She placed a hand on its arm and the suit backed away, apparently able to interpret her intent, and Hikari stepped closer to Taichi.

Then she slapped him with the same ferocity she had done with Daisuke, saying, 'You were supposed to be our leader, always looking out for everyone. Good leaders are supposed to care about every member of their teams, Taichi. _Every _member. You didn't.'

'We looked,' he said, his voice a ghost of a whisper from the sheer shock that his sister, who he had tried to stand up for, had just slapped him hard enough to stagger him.

'No, you didn't,' was Ken's response, his hands clenching into fists on the table before him. 'I read the IAA's reports on how you all spent your time. You paid the search for us lip service at best, those rare occasions you talked about us.'

'They're fakes,' Taichi said.

'Are they?' Ken said, yelling as he stood to face Taichi. 'Well if they are, they're damned good ones that got every little detail about your life just right. The route you took to school, the word choices in your texts and emails, even how many times you slap the snooze button on your alarm clock before waking up.

'I didn't want to believe that what was in those files was right, none of us did. I kept hoping that before long, Captain Ishida would break down laughing and tell us it was all just one big mind screw, designed to fracture us, only he never did. Those files are true and accurate and they're damning evidence you didn't look!'

He looked ready to lay into Taichi with a flurry of blows, anger on his face, and the leader of the DigiDestined took a worried step away from Ken, hands up in the air by his head in a defensive posture.

'I've been meaning to say that for a while now,' Ken continued as his voice returned to a more reasonable timbre, though with a definite edge to it. 'And it's helped me come to a decision I've been thinking over for just as long.

'I quit.'

All of the older kids just looked at him, stunned, doubly so when Miyako and then Iori stood up with Ken and announced their departure from the group.

'You can't just quit,' Taichi said. 'You're DigiDestined.'

'We're not quitting being DigiDestined,' Miyako said. 'We're just heading off on our own, as a new team.'

If they had badges or the like, this would be the point where they tossed them to the ground before Taichi to solidify their resignation from under his command. In fact, the only one who could do such a thing was Daisuke who reached into a trouser pocket and withdrew the goggles Taichi had bestowed upon him four years ago, as a sign of his role as leader, and tossed them with reckless abandon at his feet.

'It goes without saying I quit this shitshow,' Daisuke said, rubbing the side of his face where Hikari had hit him. Already it was turning red and swelling, a lasting impression. 'Been wanting to say that for a really long while, now.'

'Fine, go ahead,' Taichi said as he bent down to retrieve his goggles, scowling a little at the grimy condition they were in. 'See if I care.'

He pocketed the goggles and turned his back on the four of them, arms folded across his chest, but they dropped in bewilderment when Hikari said, 'I'm leaving, too.'

Once again everyone was looking right at her, Daisuke included this time around, and she met their gazes defiantly.

'You're leaving?' Takeru finally whispered. 'You're seriously leaving?'

'Yes,' Hikari said. 'I am.'

'But we're your friends,' Taichi said. 'Your family. How can you think of leaving us?'

'They're our family, too,' Hikari said, gesturing at Miyako, Ken and Iori, and Daisuke. 'And we left them behind, no matter what you might tell yourselves. I can't stay part of a group like that.'

'If we didn't look, then that means neither did you,' Yamato said. 'So who are you to say we're the bad guys here?'

'Because she's willing to admit to it,' Daisuke said. 'And try to atone for her mistakes, unlike the rest of you.'

'Now you're defending her?' Takeru said. 'Not two minutes ago you were calling her a bitch.'

'I can dislike a person and still speak truth in their defence,' Daisuke said, glowering at the other teen. 'And again, I never called her a bitch. Get that through your thick skull.'

Takeru growled at him and turned to Hikari, giving her a pleading look, and said, 'You can't leave us for them, Hikari. You can't. We're supposed to be together.'

'I'm sorry, Takeru,' she said. 'But I can't be part of this group anymore. Too much has changed.'

The expression that swept onto his face was one of utter heartbreak at losing her for a second time in just as many weeks and Hikari found herself turning away from it in shame, knowing she had been the one to cause it. But at the same time, so had Takeru. If he hadn't clung so doggedly to his belief that he and the other DigiDestined were right, they might have been able to work something out.

Instead, they were just drifting further apart as the rest of the group fractured around them. Hikari averted her gaze off Takeru and inadvertently settled on Daisuke who stared back at her, his expression unreadable for the moment. She averted it again but each time, her attention fell onto another of the DigiDestined who all bore looks of betrayal at her admonishment of them all, and her departure from the group after all these years of fighting by their sides.

It became too much and Hikari staggered out of the mess hall on rubbery legs, barely able to perceive where she was going until she found an isolated spot between two buildings, falling to her hands and knees and throwing up what little she had eaten until nothing was left but spittle and bile. She fell onto her backside and slumped against the wall behind her, staring at nothing.

'Did you come here to make fun of me?' she said to Daisuke, knowing without looking he was standing a few metres from her in his suit.

'No,' Daisuke said. 'I'm your close protection. I'm supposed to be near you.'

'I wouldn't stop you if you wanted to mock me,' Hikari said, glancing at him. 'I guess I kind of deserve it.'

'That's for sure,' Daisuke said, but he made no effort to do so. Instead, he said, 'Can I ask you a question?'

'I guess so,' Hikari said, shrugging.

'Why did you turn me down all those years ago?' he said. 'When I first asked you out.'

'You really want to know?' Hikari said.

'After yesterday, it seems only fair,' Daisuke said.

She shrugged and said, 'I think it was because you reminded me so much of my brother at the time. You'd copied so many of his mannerisms and quirks, like the goggles, that I figured it would be just like going out with my brother.'

'You knew that for certain?' Daisuke said.

'At the time I did,' Hikari said. 'Not so much now.'

He nodded absently and she went on to add, 'Would I have seen a different side of you if I had said yes?'

Daisuke looked away. 'Guess we'll never know now, will we?'

'No,' Hikari said. 'I guess we won't.'


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

The next week passed by without incident, the only interesting thing of note being the arrival of another regiment of American troops and a squadron of RAF fighters. Any interactions between the two groups of DigiDestined were kept brief and minimal where they weren't avoided entirely, and usually occurring at meal times when everyone trooped into the mess hall. They sat apart from one another, ate quickly and silently, and went on to whatever it was that occupied their time during the day.

Hikari, and by extension Daisuke, spent the days lounging around in a common room, flicking through a smattering of books or watching television, and rarer still coaxing conversation from her guardian as he lingered nearby. At night, they retired to their shared room where she would try to get some more talk from Daisuke but he would often just fall onto his bed and appear to fall asleep, though she knew better.

Tonight, though, they were meeting with Miyako and Ken at a campfire they had built, in part to hold a council of war ahead of the time the soldiers would make their way into the Dark Ocean, which was days away at best, and to unwind. Some of the British soldiers had kindly donated a crate of beers for the group, claiming they each owed Daisuke a drink from his time in the UK when the infections appeared there.

Personally, Hikari would have preferred wine to beer, maybe even some rum, but beggars couldn't be choosers and they made a start on the crate as they discussed their tactics, should they find themselves getting involved, with Daisuke hitting the drink harder than the others. Soon enough he was asleep with both arms folded across his chest, chin tucked tight against it, snoring gently. Hikari regarded him for a moment and couldn't help but marvel at how much he had changed since reuniting with him a month ago.

He was putting on some of the weight he had lost, now that he was eating properly again, and the dark circles under his eyes were gone. If anything, the spark that had filled them during their adventures in the Digital World was slowly returning, too. In time he might return to the happy go lucky person she had once known, but Hikari felt that might just be asking for too much. These past two years had to have had some effect on him, and Daisuke had all but admitted to her there was another side to him nobody else knew about.

Would she even recognise him after the business with the Dark Ocean was over with? Would she still want to call him her friend?

She eventually tore her eyes from the sleeping Daisuke and stared deeply into the heart of the campfire as the flames danced and flickered, casting a soft orange glow over her and everyone else, dwelling on those thoughts and one other, one that had been gnawing at her for the past few days at least.

'Can I talk to you guys about something?' she asked, raising her head to look at Miyako and Ken, perhaps the two best people to help her with it.

'Sure,' Miyako said. 'That's the whole purpose of this campfire, to talk. Or sleep, in Daisuke's case.'

'He needs it, I'm sure,' Ken said.

Miyako nodded in agreement to that then said to Hikari, 'So what's up?'

'I think I'm falling for Daisuke,' Hikari said quietly, drawing her knees up to hug as she went back to staring into the fire. 'Maybe. I'm not sure.'

'I wasn't expecting that,' Miyako said after a long, stunned moment. 'You mean, actually falling for him? Like you might want to have a relationship with him?'

'Yeah,' Hikari said before shaking her head. 'I don't know.'

She half expected Miyako to make some quip lambasting her choice in potential suitors, as she usually did with Daisuke given the nature of the relationship they had, but instead she said, 'What brought about this sudden change in your feelings about him?'

'I don't know,' Hikari said. 'That's what I need to talk to you and Ken about. Part of me thinks that I'm just feeling lonely since breaking up with Takeru and after spending all this time around Daisuke, I'm simply latching onto him as a means of coping.

'Another part says I feel guilty for turning him down all those years ago, and for breaking his heart like I had, and that I want to make it up to him whilst I still have the chance. Too much of my dream has come true already. How long before he gets killed?'

She whispered that part and looked at Daisuke as he continued to snore away, oblivious to the world around him. Standing off a ways was his suit, ready to spring into action in case anything happened to her or Daisuke.

'I'm curious, too,' she continued after a moment. 'About who he really is, who he's become. He's not the same reckless kid from two years ago, is he? Not anymore.'

'No,' Ken said in agreement. 'He's not. He has changed, Hikari, and that might include how he feels about you. He might not be as receptive to the idea of being in a relationship with you as he once was.'

'I know,' Hikari murmured before letting out a short, soft laugh. 'Funny, isn't it? After all these years of him wanting me, the moment I start to feel maybe there's something to be had he moves on.'

'Not really,' Miyako said. 'Have you told him about this?'

'No,' Hikari said, shaking her head. 'Assuming he doesn't reject me, he'll probably think I'm making fun of him or something. I broke his heart in a big way, remember? He probably hates me.'

'I don't think Daisuke has it in him to hate anyone properly,' Ken said.

'Yeah, well I don't think anyone's given him enough of a reason to hate them before,' Hikari said. 'He loved me and I basically left him for dead.'

'And he's seen how much that upset you to realise it,' Ken said. He stopped and looked at his best friend for a moment, wrestling with some kind of decision, then added, 'I probably shouldn't be telling you this, Hikari, but I think Daisuke might still have some feelings for you.'

'What makes you say that?' Hikari said, switching to look at Ken.

'Because when he rang the day before coming here, I asked about you,' he said. 'And he tried to make out like he was over you, angry with you, that nothing could make him say otherwise. But, it sounded like he was trying to convince himself this was true as much as he was trying to convince me.'

'You're sure?' Hikari asked.

Ken shrugged. 'Mostly. I thought I could spot when he was lying before, though after what he said about MaloMyotismon I'm not as sure as I once was. It certainly sounded like it.'

'But why would he be trying to convince himself he hates me?' Hikari said.

'Maybe he's angry with himself for still being in love with you,' Miyako offered. 'Think about it from Daisuke's point of view. The girl he loves abandons him, twice in a sense, and yet he still wants to be with her? I'd be angry with myself if that happened to me, and maybe try to convince myself I actually do hate her.'

Hikari gave a noncommittal hum to that and switched back to Daisuke. He was still sleeping, though his brow had furrowed slightly as though he were angry, or struggling with something, and he grunted something out before settling again. She wondered once again what kind of dreams, or nightmares, he had and whether she played a role in any of them.

'He looks kind of peaceful,' Ken said quietly.

'He looks kind of drunk,' Miyako said, gesturing to the half a dozen empty cans surrounding him.

Ken laughed and said, 'That, too.'

'What should I do about him?' Hikari asked.

'Talk to him,' Miyako said. 'It won't do you any good to keep it bottled up until the last minute, especially as they'll be heading off to the Dark Ocean sometime soon.'

'Maybe,' Hikari said. 'Assuming I am actually falling for Daisuke and not just feeling lonely after splitting up with Takeru, or guilty.'

'You'll never know until you try,' Miyako said, smiling faintly. 'Besides, you could do a lot worse than Daisuke.'

'There was a time when you said I could do better than him,' Hikari said, laughing, as she looked at her friend.

'I know,' Miyako said. 'You still can, but you might struggle to find them.'

Hikari nodded and returned her gaze to the heart of the fire, becoming mesmerised by the glowing embers there and the flickering of the flames as she thought about what Miyako and Ken had said. She was surprised by the possibility Daisuke still had some kind of longing for her, though perhaps not as much as she might have been. Captain Ishida had hinted at it during their conversation at the hospital, when he showed her the pictures of all those call girls that Daisuke had hired because they looked like her.

She was surprised more by how quickly her attitude towards Daisuke had changed in so short a time, even in spite of the antagonistic attitude he treated her with. Did it stem from loneliness after breaking up with Takeru, or a guilty conscience compelling her to try and atone for the hardships she had forced him to endure, or a genuine desire to become more than friends with Daisuke?

An answer was not quick in coming and Hikari gave a soft sigh as she continued to mull it over, looking up when Miyako and Ken stood.

'We're heading back,' Miyako said, slipping her arm around Ken's. 'Are you coming with us?'

'No, thanks,' Hikari said, shaking her head. 'I think I'll spend a little more time out here before I go. It's a nice enough night, after all.'

She pointed upwards to the star filled sky of the Digital World and the numerous, unnamed constellations it contained, and Miyako nodded in understanding. They waved goodbye to one another, leaving Hikari alone with just a sleeping Daisuke and his immobile suit for company. She waited until Miyako and Ken were gone before moving to sit next to Daisuke, hugging her knees again, who made no outward sign he was aware of her proximity.

Either he was a very good actor or he was deep asleep. The problem was, Hikari had no idea which was true. For four years he had lied to everyone about MaloMyotismon, among other things, without anyone being any the wiser, including his best friend.

What he couldn't ignore was when Hikari rested her head on his shoulder and stared, listlessly, into the fire as she thought things over.

He roused himself and raised his head, looking at her, and said, 'What are you doing?'

'I'm sorry,' Hikari murmured softly. 'For everything I did.'

'Yeah, I know that,' Daisuke said. 'What I'm asking is, what are you doing?'

'Thinking, I guess,' Hikari said. 'Do you remember what you would have done on our date, if I had said yes?'

'No,' Daisuke said. Then, without prompting, a moment later said, 'Yes.

'I would have taken you on a walk around the waterfront, maybe gone on the Ferris wheel if the weather was nice enough, and have lunch in a café or something. You know, keep it simple and give us time to talk.'

'And figure out a way to say I love you?' Hikari said.

'No,' Daisuke said. 'Not on the first date. I would have waited a little while before saying that, once we were going steady.'

'Why did you decide to ask me out?' Hikari asked.

'Because I was in love with you,' Daisuke said, turning away.

'You also thought Takeru was the only one destined to be with me,' Hikari said, making Daisuke grunt.

'Maybe I started to think destiny could shove it,' he muttered. 'Back then, anyway.'

'Do you still think I'm destined to be with Takeru now?' she asked.

He grunted again. 'I don't know what to think, anymore.'

'Neither do I,' Hikari said with a sigh.

She raised her head from Daisuke's shoulder and glanced at him, seeing he was still turned away from her, and said, 'I would have liked your idea for date.'

'Great,' Daisuke muttered. 'Good to know.'

It was Hikari's turn to look away. She really would have liked to have gone on a walk around the waterfront with him as a date, talking about things they might not have done with the others around and getting something to eat in a cosy café or restaurant afterwards.

'I'm sorry,' she said again. 'I know I keep saying it, Daisuke, but that's because I know I really hurt you with what happened.'

'There's an understatement,' Daisuke said.

'I know,' Hikari said. 'You were one of my closest friends and I acted like I didn't care that you were gone. If there's anything I can say or do to try and make up for even a fraction of what I did, Daisuke, please tell me. I want to make things right.'

He was silent for a long, long moment thinking, then she heard him sigh and say, 'I know you do, Hikari. I know you do. I just don't want you to. I need to hate you. I want to.'

There was definitely anger in his voice, Hikari could hear that, just like there had been when they met for the first time in two years but it sounded like the edge had come off, if only a little, and while some of it was pointed at her Hikari couldn't help wonder if some was being directed at himself, for still harbour feelings over the girl that had broken his heart.

'Sometimes we don't always get what we want,' Hikari said softly, echoing their conversation from a week ago. 'And sometimes, lying to ourselves about what we do want can cause more harm than good.'

She turned back to look at Daisuke and saw his eyes were growing watery as he focused on a random spot away from her, and he barely even flinched when Hikari leant over and put her head on his shoulder again, saying, 'If you want to hate me, hate me. If you don't, well, it's no café but there's always the mess hall.'


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

When she woke the next morning, Hikari could feel a nervous tension hanging in the air like a physical weight. Today was the day they were going to assault the Dark Ocean and everyone knew it, even if it hadn't been announced. They just knew. She glanced over at Daisuke as he lay on his bed, flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling with lidded eyes. It didn't look like had gotten any sleep, as wound up as the rest of the soldiers on base, if not more so. He would get the unenviable task of dealing with the most powerful monsters they found in that shadowy realm.

'Are you worried?' she asked him.

'Yes,' Daisuke whispered.

'But you're still going to go,' Hikari said.

'Yes,' Daisuke said.

'Even though you might die,' Hikari said.

'Yes,' Daisuke said a third time.

She propped herself up on an elbow to get a proper look at Daisuke, seeing he had thrown off his bedcover at some point in the night, staring impassively up at the ceiling. There was a tremor in his voice, though, that belied his otherwise stoic façade but rather than fear, it sounded more like regret or sadness to Hikari.

'I'm not ready to die,' Daisuke said, his tone still low.

'I don't think anybody ever is, really,' Hikari said.

'I'm just a kid,' Daisuke continued. 'Barely sixteen. There's so much I haven't seen or done, things that I might never get around to doing anymore.'

'Do you have any regrets?' Hikari asked, watching as tears began to form in the corners of Daisuke's eyes and fall down his cheeks.

'Yeah,' he said.

'Am I one of them?'

Daisuke nodded absently, his gaze never moving from the ceiling, and seeing that helped Hikari make a decision she had been thinking over ever since last night at the campfire. She had regrets of her own and it was plain to see Daisuke was struggling with the prospect of meeting his end in the Dark Ocean. Too much of her dream had come true for even him to ignore, and though they had faced down death no end of times in their role as DigiDestined there had always been that small glimmer of hope they could escape it. That didn't seem to be the case this time.

She rose from her bed and padded, barefoot, over to Daisuke and before he could react she was sitting astride him, looking down at his face in the dim light. He opened his mouth to speak but Hikari leant down and cut him off with a soft kiss, her hands on his cheeks.

'I've got regrets of my own,' she breathed. 'And hurting you is the biggest one, so please, Daisuke. Let me try to atone for it with this.'

She kissed him again, more firmly, as Daisuke's hands came to rest on her hips. Either by reflex or conscious thought, she didn't mind, so long as he wasn't trying to dislodge her. Soon, they were drifting to her back in an embrace that brought her tight up against his chest. He moaned and kissed the nape her of neck, then just behind her ear, likely savouring and cherishing the feeling after four long years of pining after it, and Hikari hoped the reality far exceeded his expectations.

They spent a few minutes more kissing and touching one another until Hikari felt, or at least finally became aware of, Daisuke's erection pressing up against her backside. It didn't even cross her mind that not three weeks ago, that exact same sensation had caused her no small amount of fear and terror and yet here she was, about to give herself over to the very person that had tried to rape her.

Daisuke let go long enough for Hikari to sit up and take her T-shirt off, so she was wearing nothing but her underwear, and without taking her eyes of him she undid the clasp of her bra and threw it to the floor, giving Daisuke his first look at her naked chest. His eyes seemed to have glazed over and lost all focus, mesmerised by the sight before him, and his hands slowly started to creep up from her hips towards the soft, supple flesh that had his full attention-

-and then his phone rang.

His hands stopped and he blinked, the light coming back on in his eyes at the sound.

'Ignore it,' Hikari said.

'I can't,' Daisuke said. 'It'll be the captain.

'Tell him it was on silent,' Hikari said. 'The battery was dead. You were asleep. Just ignore it.'

'I can't,' Daisuke said again.

He gave a resigned, weary sigh and sat up, bringing himself face to face with Hikari, a defeated look in his eyes as he reached for his phone, flipping it open and answering.

'Yes?' he said. 'Yes, sir. No, sir. Understood.'

Daisuke snapped it shut again and said, 'The Marines are heading for the Dark Ocean breach point in an hour, and they're mustering for it in thirty minutes. I have to be there with them.'

'Can't you be a little late?' Hikari asked but Daisuke just shook his head.

'I wish I could,' he said, almost mournfully.

'I see,' Hikari said.

She reached down and took hold of his free hand, guiding it to her breast and keeping it in place there as she gave him one final kiss, murmuring, 'Come back to me, Daisuke.'

'I'll try,' he whispered.

With a sigh they parted, Daisuke grabbing some clean fatigues and heading into the en suite to change, emerging a few minutes later fully dressed to step into his suit. He cast one last glance at Hikari as she sat, half naked, on his bed then left the room. The click of the door as it closed sounded overwhelmingly loud in the silence that now filled the room, and Hikari kept her gaze on the door as though expecting Daisuke to come bursting through it and take her, there and then, on the floor rather than meeting up with the US Marines.

But he didn't and eventually she reached down and grabbed her bra, putting it back on. Across from her, Gatomon cracked open an eye and said, 'Is it safe to wake up?'

'Yes,' Hikari said, sighing. 'It is.'

She stood and went over to her footlocker, picking out a fresh set of clothes. Her hands drifted towards the fatigues that had been kindly donated to her during her first night on base, as though she felt that if today was the day they finally struck back against the Dark Ocean, she might as well dress for battle.

'Feel any better?' Gatomon asked as she sat up.

'Not really,' Hikari said.

'It probably helped him,' Gatomon said. 'At least now he knows you care.'

Hikari nodded and slipped the oversized T-shirt over her head, feeling it just hang off her slender frame, and started to pull on the trousers as Gatomon asked, 'Do you love him?'

'Let's not get ahead of ourselves,' Hikari said. 'I admire him, and I feel sorry for what I put him through, but I don't think love is how I'd describe my feelings towards Daisuke.'

'You sounded pretty lovey-dovey when you told him to come back to you,' Gatomon said, wrapping her paws around her and doing a little spin. 'And the way you kissed him, too, when you said it. Hikari and Daisuke, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!'

'Knock it off,' Hikari muttered as she cinched her belt as tight as it would go, scooping up Gatomon as she continued to pirouette when she was done. A moment later, she added, 'I guess I did sound a little lovestruck then, huh?'

'Yeah, you did,' Gatomon said.

Hikari let out a soft chuckle and rubbed the fur on her partner's head, only to stop as her smile faded, remembering what was about to happen in less than an hour's time. She sighed and with Gatomon in her arms, trudged down to the mess hall where everyone else was already present, forcing food down their throats despite the nervous atmosphere hanging over them all and Hikari did the same. She barely tasted her scrambled eggs as she sat with Miyako and the others, each of them quiet and subdued.

'So,' Miyako said, if only to break the silence that had fallen over the four of them. 'What happened last night? Did you and Daisuke talk?'

'A little,' Hikari said. 'And we talked a little more this morning, before we got up.'

'And?' Miyako said. 'Don't spare the details, girl.'

'I think-' she began, before remembering how she and Daisuke had parted this morning, the tenderness of her plea and the kiss they had shared, and smiled and said, 'No, I _know_ I want to be with him. I'm sure of it.'

Gatomon had been right in saying her last words to Daisuke this morning sounded lovestruck, despite her initial motivation to sleep with him being righting a wrong she had done her friend. The tenderness with which she had kissed him, had spoken to him with, was certainly fuelled by more than regret and guilt. It was deeper than that, and Hikari wouldn't deny that it could well be love she felt towards Daisuke.

'But does he want to be with you, though?' Ken asked. 'I know I said he probably still does love you, but you hurt him.'

'I know,' Hikari said. 'But I could see it in his eyes as we kissed. He still loves me, and I'll do everything I can to make up for abandoning him, and you guys as well.'

'Oh, there was kissing this morning, huh?' Miyako said, a sly grin creeping onto her face. 'Just kissing?'

'Yes,' Hikari said as her cheeks heated in embarrassment. 'A call from Captain Ishida stopped us before we could go any further than that, otherwise the things Takeru keeps accusing me of would be true rather than baseless rumours.'

'Willing to sleep with a man on the first date?' Miyako whispered lowly. 'My, my, Hikari Yagami. You are an easy one, aren't you?'

She put a hand to her head as though feeling faint from hearing a shocking revelation, falling backwards into Ken's arms as Hikari felt her cheeks grow even hotter. Some of the others were looing at her, drawn in by Miyako's theatrics, but none of them seemed to have heard what was being said. Certainly Taichi and Takeru hadn't, otherwise they would have some choice words for her, especially Takeru. They had dated for months before becoming intimate like that, and here she was, barely into a relationship with Daisuke, offering herself up to him.

'Shut up,' Hikari muttered.

'You know I'm only messing with you,' Miyako said, grinning. 'But seriously, I'm happy you've managed to work things out with Daisuke. You'll make such a cute couple.'

'You said the same thing about me and Takeru,' Hikari said, nodding at her ex-boyfriend's back as he hunched over his tray of food. 'And look how that turned out.'

'Well, yeah,' Miyako said. 'But this time I know it'll be true. Wanna know how I'm so sure?'

'Please,' Hikari said.

'Because Daisuke still loves you, even after everything,' Miyako said. 'If he can do that, you'll be together forever.'

'I guess so,' Hikari said, though as she did flashes of her dream, of Daisuke being killed by a tentacle, filled her mind's eye. 'Assuming he lives through today.'

'You can't think like that,' Ken said. 'Of course Daisuke will make it through this. If he wasn't going to fight like hell before, he will now.'

The images of a dead and dying Daisuke persisted in Hikari's mind. 'I suppose so.'

'Fight for him,' Miyako said gently, placing her hand on Hikari's. 'If you really do want to be with Daisuke, and he wants to be with you, then fight. Don't let the Dark Ocean take him away from you, because then you'll never be able to make up for leaving him behind.'

Hikari offered a wan smile but her gaze drifted towards Gatomon as she worked her way through a tray of food, saying, 'I'd risk losing her, though.'

'You could,' Miyako said. 'But maybe you should let Gatomon make that decision. I'd argue she has the final say in the matter, don't you?'

At that Hikari nodded and continued to pick away at her food until just scraps remained, pushing them towards Gatomon who gladly ate them up. If there was a possibility of combat, then it made sense for her to be as full of energy as possible. Just in case. She glanced at her watch and saw that thirty minutes had passed since Ishida called, meaning Daisuke and the Marines were mustering ahead of travelling to the breach point into the Dark Ocean. Another thirty minutes and they'd be going through.

She wondered if Ishida was with him but as the hands on her watch ticked over to half past the hour, he strode into the mess hall, dressed in his fatigues and wearing an armoured vest, and addressed the assembled DigiDestined.

'We're launching the operation within thirty minutes,' he said. 'I'm heading out to the command post to help oversee it. If any of you wish to accompany me, now's the time.'

Hikari stood without hesitation, Gatomon cradled in her arms, followed soon after by Miyako, Ken and Iori, plus their Digimon, and then everyone else. Ishida nodded once and span on his heel, leading them out with Hikari at the head of the column. Out in the courtyard area were two trucks, tailgates dropped and ready for passengers, and the DigiDestined split themselves between them with Ishida climbing in with Hikari's group.

'I didn't interrupt anything when I rang this morning, did I?' he asked, sitting next to her.

She hesitated then said, 'Yes,' before adding, 'But it's given him a reason to come back to me.'

Ishida regarded her for a moment and said, 'Good. It's been a while since something decent happened to him.'

Then, 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break up what should have been a special moment.'

'So long as it doesn't happen again,' Hikari said as the truck lurched into motion, its diesel engine roaring as they set off for the command post, from where the battle was to be coordinated.

'Is Daisuke going to be there?' she asked a few minutes later.

'No,' Ishida said. 'He'll be at the initial staging area with the battalion he's attached to. We'll be around a mile back from them, and the timetable doesn't allow for him to come to us, or vice versa.'

'Oh,' Hikari said. 'Okay.'

The officer looked at her but said nothing else for the rest of the trip to the command post, little more than a bunch of tents and vehicles arranged in a sprawl atop the only rise in the area, affording a decent enough view of where the Marines had assembled before strange devices that towered into the air. These were probably the machines that replicated the effects of the Control Spires Ken had once spread all across the Digital World, weakening the walls between dimensions.

A chill swept over Hikari's skin as she looked at them, even from afar, though it could just as easily be something else in the air putting her on edge. The generals said they chose this location because it had a strong connection to the Dark Ocean, or something to that effect.

'You can feel it, too,' Ken said from beside her. 'The darkness.'

'Yeah,' Hikari said.

She shivered and held Gatomon close. Ishida ducked into one of the tents as everyone got down from the trucks and re-emerged a few minutes later sporting a headset over one ear, listening intently to what was being said over the airwaves.

'Two minutes to launch,' he said. 'Bringing towers online now.'

It was hard to tell from this distance if anything was really happening, but when Ishida said that a chill tore through Hikari and next to her, Ken let out a shuddering gasp as a connection between their world and the Dark Ocean began to form. Miyako took hold of both their hands, Hawkmon stood before them all like some kind of vanguard, though Hikari found she wanted it to be Daisuke comforting her right now, except he was about to head into danger.

'Towers at thirty percent,' Ishida reported. 'Fifty percent. Eighty percent. Ninety percent. Towers online. Portals forming.'

There looked like a dozen or more towers arranged into pairs, each with a Marine formation assembled in front of them, and between each pair a dark, hazy image started to take form through which they could see the shadowy outline of lapping waves on a beach made up of black sand.

'Stabilised,' Ishida said. 'Lead units moving in now.'

Several armoured vehicles crept forwards into the portals and seemed to grow indistinct and waver, crossing through to a new dimension few people had gone to, and never of their own choice. When nothing bad appeared to happen, the Marines next in line moved forward and made the transition into the Dark Ocean.

'Lead elements now inside the Dark Ocean,' Ishida said, one hand to the headset as though struggling to make out what he was hearing. 'Picking up some interference. No reports of contact yet, establishing beachhead.'

He carried on like that for a few minutes more, the Marines reporting back what they saw as they secured their entry point into the Dark Ocean. It struck Hikari as odd that the creatures who lived there wouldn't respond to such a rude invasion of their home by beings that, outside of Daisuke, lacked any real power to combat them.

'Wait,' Ishida said. 'Lead recon units reporting contact with unknown forces, described as shadowy creatures. Multiple contacts now. They're engaging. Hostile intent confirmed. Sierra-1's-'

The rest was cut off by an explosion at one of the portals, a lance of energy spearing through it to strike at a line of armoured vehicles waiting to enter and turn them into burning pyres. It happened at another portal, then another, before all of the waiting Marine formations had been ravaged by explosions. Hikari watched the scene in horror, knowing everyone in those vehicles was dead, as Ishida called out casualty reports that made it sound like the entire regiment was done for.

'Sierra-1 is in combat with multiple Ultimate-level targets,' Ishida shouted over the dull rumble of the detonations, muted as they were by the distance. 'Confirm three- no five- eleven- twenty- Confirm upwards of thirty Ultimate-level Digimon converging on the portals. Sierra-1 falling back to friendly lines.'

That might have been something of an exaggeration. Hikari saw a dark shape come hurtling out of the nearest portal and slam into the ground like a meteorite, throwing up dirt and dust and trailing smoke, that she knew to be Daisuke. She could only look on as he righted himself and flew towards the portal, cannons flashing, as the first of the three-thousand infected Digimon the Dark Ocean had stolen appeared.

Another explosion sounded close by and for a fleeting moment, Hikari feared that the infected Digimon had gotten through to where she was and had flung an attack, but looking around she saw some of the field artillery had been located nearby in defiladed positions, and the crew had just fired off the first of many shells at the newly arrived targets.

Others joined them from all around the towers as more infected Digimon appeared, blanketing the ground with smoke and dust as the explosive shells churned dirt. Some Digimon were taken down in just a few hits, dissolving into data, but others were more robust and emerged from the barrage unscathed. These ones Daisuke went after, as did flak cannons and some of the fighter aircraft Hikari had seen when she first arrived at Alpha Base.

'We'll be okay,' she said to Ishida who had stopped talking and was staring intently at the six portals, hand still pressed against his headset. 'Won't we?'

'Nothing's certain in war,' he said. 'We just lost two-thousand Marines in five minutes.'

Hikari's face blanched. 'What does that mean?'

'That they were ready for us,' Ishida said. He listened to his headset. 'Towers are offline, destroyed more like, but the portals are still operational. Wait, two new portals have appeared. Make that five. More Digimon appearing through the portals. Bringing up the balance of our forces.'

Artillery and mortar shells continued to pour down onto the centre of the battlefield where only a few minutes ago, so many young men and women had stood ready to fight against a threat to their world. Now all that remained was torn scraps of clothing and metal, spread between what now looked to be twenty portals arranged in a loose circle. From each, every few seconds, stepped three or four Ultimate-level Digimon. Soon there were sixty of them, a hundred, three-hundred, on the plains with more coming.

Some were blown up by the artillery shells, and others still were harassed by the fighter aircraft until they dissolved into data, but enough survived both to begin advancing on the defiladed human forces and launch attacks of their own. Missiles, energy balls, rocks, fire, anything and everything these Digimon could use as an attack came slamming down amongst the soldiers and blew them to pieces. Slowly, but surely, the incoming fire began to drop off, and when it began to slow the rate at which the infected Digimon were being destroyed fell, too…

Now there were five-hundred Digimon on the battlefield, roughly what the gathered forces of Alpha Base could theoretically handle as a maximum, and still more filtered through the portal, plus shadowy looking creatures a little bigger than an adult. These ones stole across the plains, dodging between explosions and flurries of gunfire, to set themselves upon the fighting positions of the soldiers. Screams could be heard from them as the monsters tore them apart, literally, working to create breaks in the defensive line around their portals.

'We are leaving!' Ishida shouted, tearing his headset off and turning for the trucks, grabbing Hikari by the arm to pull her along as he went. 'All units are ordered to retreat back to the transition points.'

'What about them?' Hikari shouted back over the din, pointing at the other troop formations.

'They're on their own,' Ishida said. 'Our priority right now is getting you to safety.'

He hauled Hikari up into the back of the truck and slammed on the back of the cab, not even bothering to close the tailgate before half sitting, half falling into his seat as the driver set off. Behind them, the armoured fighting vehicles of everyone that had come, both the tracked designs and the smaller, lighter trucks that used wheels, formed up into a defensive posture around her truck as Ishida shouted orders into a radio.

'How far until we get to the portal?' Hikari asked.

'Eight miles, maybe nine,' Ishida said. 'And that's assuming the closest one to us is still intact. We'll be lucky to make it inside of twenty minutes.'

The sound from the truck's engine rose into a pained scream as the driver pushed it as hard as he could, but the real issue came from the terrain. It looked deceptively flat, with small dips and bumps everywhere, and the inside of the truck felt like it was riding a rough sea. Any faster and they might hit something and break a vital component, like snapping an axle or blowing a tyre, and then they'd be sitting ducks.

Hikari glanced out the back of the truck to the skies, wondering if taking flight with Angewomon or Nefertimon was a better idea before discarding it. There were too many Digimon up there to make it even remotely safe, to say nothing of the constant barrages from flak guns or the fighter aircraft that flicked from one target to another without a second's hesitation. She'd be fired upon for definite, so Hikari went back to holding on for dear life as the truck bounced across the plains.

Then the world exploded.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

A loud, droning sound filled Hikari's ears as her vision slowly came back, the fuzzy interior of the back a truck swimming into view. Only, it was at a funny angle and the air was choked with dust, making her cough as she came to. A groan escaped her lips and she out a hand to a new tender spot on her head, though her whole body was wracked with pain and in particular her left arm. She tried to move it and more pain flared up through her body, and looking down Hikari saw it was dislocated again.

She hissed in pain and used her good arm to haul herself towards a triangle of light at the back of the truck, groaning with every single movement. Her ribs could be broken as well, she reasoned, alongside any other number of bones. Certainly there were going to be bruises, lots of them, and scrapes.

It was a draining exercise to drag herself along and by the time she made it to the back of the truck, Hikari was exhausted as she stared out at the chaos surrounding her. There were a few other vehicles tipped over on their sides, if not their roofs, and several others were belching flames and black smoke into the sky as soldiers tried to establish a perimeter against the infected Digimon assaulting them. The armoured vehicles still operational were training their turrets on them, firing away, but Hikari could only count eleven of them from her position.

But, she did see the familiar sight of MetalGreymon standing in their midst, firing off attacks, alongside WereGarurumon and Zudomon, so that tipped the balance somewhat back in their favour. There was a flash of light and then, MagnaAngemon joined the fight, followed by Lilymon.

'Hikari!' a familiar voice shouted as she dragged herself further from the truck wreckage. 'You're still alive. Medic!'

She raised her head and saw Mike, the British soldier from her first day on base, come hurrying over with a rifle in his hand and a bloody bandage on his head. Behind him was a soldier she didn't know but they carried a large rucksack, a subdued cross on their helmet that singled them out as a medic, who hauled her into a small lee between the truck and the ground to examine her.

'What happened?' Hikari whispered through gritted teeth as the medic started probing the various lumps and bruises she now sported, paying particular attention to her left arm.

'That's dislocated,' the medic said, quite needlessly. 'Hold on.'

'We got hit,' Mike said. 'We're still _being_ hit.'

A series of explosions sounded just beyond the rudimentary perimeter the soldiers had established, if it could really be called that, and screams soon followed as someone else was struck down. MetalGreymon roared and fired off his missiles at some unseen Digimon, twin booms roiling across the scene seconds later. Elsewhere, one of the American tracked vehicles traversed its turret to bear on a flying Digimon and loosed off a string of rounds.

They connected and the Digimon fell from the sky, bursting into data, but three more took its place. Electric blue lasers slammed into them, courtesy of Daisuke in his suit, but it did little more than scatter them as he moved onto another target. At the very least, seeing he was still alive helped shift some of the worry hanging over Hikari.

'An extraction plan is being worked on,' Mike continued, pausing briefly to raise his rifle and send a burst at something flying overhead, the empty brass casings falling to the floor in a glittering arc. 'But we're still seven miles from the nearest portal, assuming it's still there. Alpha Base has been hit.'

He gestured to several stacks of smoke coming up from behind the horizon in roughly the same direction as the human's base in the region, and the grimness of his tone suggested the casualties from it weren't minimal.

'Where are the others?' Hikari asked, looking at the five Ultimate Digimon helping defend the stalled convoy. There should have been at least another two, plus the Champion forms of Hawkmon, Wormmon and Armadillomon.

'Gone,' Mike said after a moment. 'Just… gone.'

'And Gatomon?' Hikari asked.

She hadn't seen her partner anywhere since coming to, and even though it couldn't have been more than a few minutes since the crash Hikari refused to believe that Gatomon had been destroyed in that time. But, she knew from the saddened look on Mike's face this was the case.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'An Okuwamon went for her almost immediately as she came out of the wreck. It was over before we could do anything.'

The medic chose that point to shove a dressing in Hikari's mouth and pop her shoulder back into place. She screamed in pain, physical and emotional, and fell heavily onto her side as tears streamed from her eyes, biting down onto the dressing. At the very least, it kept her from biting her tongue off.

'No!' Hikari whimpered as she lay there, clutching one arm and her mouth full of dressing. 'No, no, no! Gatomon!'

She spat the dressing out and let loose another pained howl as she thought of her partner, of all the memories they had made together, now gone at the hands of the Dark Ocean's forces. Gone without even a chance to say goodbye.

'We need to get you out of here,' Mike said, hauling Hikari into an upright position. 'The Dark Ocean's coming for you, and we're running out of time.'

'Gatomon!' Hikari said, oblivious to what he was saying, or what the medic was doing. She seemed to blink and her arm was in a sling, and the pain from her arm was starting to fade as the medic pinned an empty needle to her shirt.

'Come on!' Mike yelled. 'On your feet!'

He grabbed Hikari's good arm and yanked her upwards, to her feet, earning a reproachful tut from the medic at handling an injured child so roughly, but Mike ignored him as he half led, half dragged Hikari to a nearby vehicle that had its roof torn off. A soldier was crouched next to it, rifle firing at a distant target, and he looked up when Mike and Hikari approached him.

'This thing still running?' Mike asked, gesturing at the truck.

'Yes, sir,' the soldier said with a nod, glancing at Hikari. 'I'm taking her, huh?'

'Yes,' Mike said. 'Think you can do it?'

The soldier grinned. 'Trust in the Landy, sir. She'll make it.'

'Good,' Mike said, turning to his ward. 'Let's go.'

'Gonna feel naked without some cover,' the soldier said as he got behind the wheel of the truck, or the Landy as he called it, slapping the ignition button to bring it to life.

'I got that covered,' Mike said, waiving to a nearby group of soldiers, Americans according to the flags on their uniforms, and a single JSDF member, and pointed to the back of the Landy. They got the message quickly enough and climbed in as Mike helped Hikari into the passenger seat, strapping her in.

'Still not feeling great,' the driver said, glancing at the six men sitting behind him with their rifles, plus a light machinegun, held at the ready.

'I said it's covered,' Mike snapped back, grabbing a radio sitting on the dashboard. He keyed the talk button and said, 'Daisuke, it's Mike. We're moving Hikari to Portal A5 via a Wolf. She's got six guns in the back, but we need-'

The rest was cut off the loud buzzing of a Flymon as it swooped in, and then a pained scream from Mike as a stinger from the insect Digimon slammed into his chest, piercing it, but they didn't get a chance to help him because the driver slammed the Landy or Wolf, or whatever it was, into gear and they took off with the engine roaring and the gearbox screaming. Hikari felt her everything flare up in pain from the impact of being slammed back into her seat.

It didn't get any better. Once they were free of the convoy the driver buried the accelerator and they rocketed away, but the ground was anything but smooth and they were doing anything but a steady pace. Hikari did her best to see what the speedo said, and during rare moments of stability she saw they were doing something between forty and fifty miles an hour. The Wolf bounced around as it found each dip and bump, at times seeming to actually come up off the ground, as if the driver was confident it could take the abuse.

She didn't feel like she could, her every injury screaming anew with each impact and jolt despite the painkiller the medic had given her. Obviously Hikari didn't expect it to drown out everything, but it seemed like the contents of the syringe were doing nothing at all. Behind her, the soldiers had their guns up and were firing at anything hostile that thought about chasing them, a futile endeavour really but it worked well enough to distract them for Daisuke to come in and finish them off, flying overwatch.

Further back was the indistinct forms of MetalGreymon, WereGarurumon and MagnaAngemon rushing to keep pace. Of Zudomon and Lilymon there was no sign, suggesting they too had fallen to the forces of the Dark Ocean.

The only Japanese soldier in the truck put a hand to his ear, listening to his radio, and said, 'Point A5 is gone. The infected just trashed it.'

'Alternatives?' the driver asked.

'Finding that out now,' the soldier said, speaking into his mic. A minute later he said, 'All the A portals are gone, same for the B, C and D portals. E might still be operational, maybe F. It's hard to tell. The channels are being overwhelmed.

'We're twelve miles from the E portals,' the driver said, glancing at his instruments. 'Fifteen minutes, if we're lucky.'

'Fifteen minutes?' one of the Americans yelled out from the back. 'Shit, we won't last five with the forces they're sending our way.'

'We gotta try,' another of the Americans said. 'We can't just give up.'

'Yeah, screw that!' a third said. 'These bastards want to play, let's make 'em pay for it!'

All of this happened in English and Hikari heard only snippets of it, but she could tell from the tone of the soldiers that something bad had occurred. She pulled her seatbelt tighter as they flew over another bump in the ground, landing heavily on the other side, earning another hiss of pain from her. When this was all over, she was going to need at least a month in bed just to recover.

She looked up into the air where Daisuke was flying, still with them despite no doubt taking a battering from fighting all these Digimon. A trail of smoke was coming out of his thrusters and one of the lasers attached to his forearms sputtered and sparked, broken beyond use, but still he fought on.

'Come back to me,' Hikari whispered. 'Please, Daisuke. I can't lose you.'

There was no way he could have heard her, and nor could anyone else for that matter given the roaring of the Wolf's engine or the howling of the wind. She barely heard it, and yet Daisuke seemed to because he flew lower and closer to the speeding vehicle.

At least, that was what it seemed like. Hikari quickly realised he was moving to intercept something ahead of her when the ground erupted with an explosion, a Digimon bursting up from below, and the driver swerved to avoid it but they were going too fast, over rough ground, in something designed as a utilitarian workhorse, and it rolled over.

The soldiers in the back were thrown free as the Wolf rolled, killed when they slammed into the ground, with only Hikari and the driver staying in their seats thanks to their belts, though that wasn't to say they emerged unharmed from the experience.

Hikari felt some of her ribs crack for definite and her head slammed into the dashboard, knocking her out again, as the Wolf tumbled and hung, dazed, in her seat when it finally came to a halt, amazingly upright, but belching smoke and steam from the engine bay. She groaned and fumbled for the seatbelt release, sliding from the seat to the ground below in an untidy heap when she was free. For the moment she felt no pain, but only because that part of her brain had shut down from a stimulus overload. In a few minutes it would come back, and then she'd probably black out.

A dark shape landed nearby and stalked towards her, grabbing her under the arms and dragging her away from the Wolf just as flames appeared alongside the steam coming from the engine bay, the whole vehicle exploding a moment later and taking with it the driver, still belted in behind the wheel. Hikari glanced up at her saviour, recognising them as Daisuke during a moment where her vision wasn't blurry, and she mumbled something about him coming back as he propped her up against a rock.

He made no reply to that, assuming she had even said something coherent in her current state, and turned to face the incoming threat of a veritable army of infected Digimon coming to steal her away for their master. Daisuke rocketed away as Hikari's vision greyed out before coming back, if only partially, and he had moved over from where she had last seen him and was battling someone new, and when it faded and came back again he was somewhere else entirely.

The next time it happened, Hikari registered three more figures standing around her and they all seemed familiar, and it took a second to recognise them as Taichi, Takeru and Yamato, her brother crouched down next to her.

'Hikari, can you hear me?' he seemed to be saying, but to her ears he sounded very far away. 'Speak to me!'

'Taichi?' she muttered out, blinking hard several times. Her brother's visage seemed to hang just before her eyes, blurry, as he reached out to take hold of her.

'Yeah, it's me,' he said. 'Can you stand? Can you move?'

'I think…' Hikari said as she tried to move something, anything, but her body refused to respond. The closest she got was making her arm tremble. 'I can't.'

'Don't worry, it's okay,' Taichi said. 'I'm here for you.'

She felt him scoop her up into his arms and carry her towards a big orange mass that had to be MetalGreymon, standing guard nearby as MagnaAngemon and WereGarurumon tried their best to back Daisuke up, but the odds stacked against them were immense. At least 150-1, maybe, and one of the fighters was on the verge of collapse. Maybe they all were. Hikari couldn't be certain of anything right now. Her consciousness felt like it had drifted away from her body and she was simply spectating it all on a small television screen.

'There's too many of them, Taichi,' she heard Yamato say as one of the Digimon grunted in pain, falling to the ground. 'We'll never make to a portal.'

'I'm not going to give up my sister!' Taichi shouted. 'Would you give up Takeru? Or Sora?'

'We might not have a say in the matter,' Yamato said. 'They're seconds away from overrunning us!'

An explosion slammed into MetalGeymon's back and he crouched over the four DigiDestined to shield them from the debris and blast, grunting. It sounded muted to Hikari's ears, as did everything else. She felt Taichi's grip on her tighten in response and she looked up at him, seeing he sported a bloody bandage on his cheek and parts of his hair had been singed away by fire.

'I'm not losing my sister,' he repeated.

'Then we need Omnimon to get her out of here,' Yamato said.

'No,' Hikari whispered, but it just came out as a soft grunt. 'No Omnimon.'

There was no way they could risk losing him to the Dark Ocean. If they did, then the subjugation of the Earth became a question of when, not if. Surely Taichi and the other two realised that by now, didn't they? Or did they think they could stave off the infection long enough for MagnaAngemon or Daisuke to carry her to safety?

'No,' she tried to say again, managing a croak this time but Taichi either didn't hear or didn't understand what she was saying.

He gently put her back down on the ground and turned to Takeru, giving the young teen a solemn nod that signalled she was now his responsibility to escort to safety. To which, Takeru nodded back and called out for his partner.

'No,' Hikari whispered again, finally coherent enough to be understood, but nobody heard her.

There was a flash at MetalGreymon and WereGarurumon digivolved to the next level, then a brighter one as they fused together and became Omnimon. As they did, MangaAngemon carefully picked up Hikari in his arms and, with Takeru on his back, took to the skies as Omnimon faced down the encroaching Digimon army with just a several wounded Daisuke for backup, though he took one look at the Mega Digimon and moved the other way, after Hikari and Takeru.

He managed to get airborne but barely, the thrusters of his suit belching smoke and flame in equal measure as he struggled to keep pace with the angelic Digimon towards what was hopefully the last remaining portal back to the real world.

Suffice it to say, they didn't make it.

Daisuke slammed into MagnaAngemon and forced him to the side in time to miss a shot from Omnimon, though a near miss from a Mega level Digimon as powerful as him was still destructive in its own right. Simply being caught in the heat and power bleed off was enough to knock them all from the sky and revert MagnaAngemon back to Patamon when they all crashed. The only one who stood back up was Daisuke but it was clearly taking everything he had to do so, his entire body shaking from exertion.

Even so, he raised his arms in a combat stance and span his remaining lasers up. They all then exploded one after the other, leaving them twisted and ruined, and he stared at them in shocked disbelief as Omnimon surged forward, lightning quick, and with just a light tap from his sword sent Daisuke flying backwards into the ground.

'He's infected,' Takeru whispered, staring up at Omnimon as he came closer to him and Hikari, looking down at the pair with empty eyes. 'The Dark Ocean has him.'

'Yes,' Hikari whispered back.

This is what Captain Ishida and the others had worried would happen if the DigiDestined threw themselves into the fight against the Dark Ocean, that their most powerful fighter would become corrupted and turned against them. Worse, nothing could stop him from taking Hikari back to the Dark Ocean, another of their worries they had sought to avert.

They were done for.

'I can. Still. Fight,' Patamon said, struggling to his paws in front of Takeru and Hikari. 'I won't let you hurt them.

He shouted this at Omnimon, defiant to the last, and earned a swipe of his sword for the trouble. Patamon was there one minute and gone the next, exploding into data before their very eyes. A soft cry escaped Takeru's lips at seeing his partner die again, the will to fight leaving his body in an instant. He collapsed next to Hikari and cried, beating the ground in despair, as Omnimon towered over them both.

Fear swept across Hikari as she looked up at him, a feeling that was only partly alleviated when Daisuke stumbled over and fell to his knees beside her, looking a haggard mess with his armour cracked and dented and smoking and sparking all over. He had nothing left to give in this fight and he knew it, gently taking hold of her hand in his, sharing one last moment.

Silence fell over everything with not even the wind making a noise, just the shallow breathing of Hikari and Takeru as they waited for the inevitable to come. For Hikari, this meant a giant beast made of tentacles appearing to kill Daisuke and take her away with it, to the Dark Ocean, and she steeled herself when another dark portal opened behind Omnimon, taller than all the others, and immediately found her sense of smell being overwhelmed by the stench of rotting flesh and saltwater.

The creature that emerged looked exactly like it had in her dreams, innumerable tentacles sliding over one another to form gross, misshapen limbs that oozed slime with a head that possessed glowing red eyes and a slobbering maw lined with yellowed, razor sharp teeth drawn back into a sadistic grin as it looked down at Daisuke.

A tentacle shot towards him and despite herself Hikari shied away from the sight on reflex, not wanting to see the person she was falling in love with die, but there was no sound of metal rending as it was pierced. Rather, it sounded more like creaking and groaning and she cautiously opened her eyes to look, finding that the monster had chosen to wrap Daisuke within its tentacle instead. For the moment, at least.

The tentacle tightened its hold on him and she heard his suit creak in protest as it was crushed, a muffled bang coming from somewhere as a component exploded followed by another, before releasing him. Daisuke dropped and slammed into the ground with a solid thump, his suit smoking from everywhere, but the abuse wasn't over with as another tentacle, smaller than the one before, wrapped itself around his neck and hoisted him back into the air to hang before the monster's face where it fixed him with its evil grin.

'My master said to make you final moments in this pitiful world suffer,' it rumbled, spraying him with spittle as it spoke. 'To pay you back the grave injustice you did him four years ago. I think the Endless Depths should suffice. Cold, alone and surrounded by nothing but darkness as the weight of the water slowly crushes you piece by piece.'

It span and hurled Daisuke with tremendous speed in the general direction of the body of water Hikari had only seen on the map in the conference centre. Within seconds he was gone from sight, too small to see, and the creature turned back to her with that same sadistic grin.

She was soon ensnared in a tentacle, the slime it was covered in making her gag at the stench, and held before the creature's face as it said, 'My queen. From you an invasion force unlike any other shall be born, and with it all will bow before us.'

From somewhere down below she could hear Takeru shouting at the monster to let her go, pleading, but without Patamon or a suit like Daisuke's that was all he could do, and the last Hikari saw of him before getting dragged into the portal was of Takeru down on his hands and knees, screaming her name.

**To be continued…**


End file.
